Pokémon: Kanto Adventures
by GoldInTheDark
Summary: The tale of three trainers, countless mental breakdowns, tons of swearing, an immensely powerful sociopath and a mystery man in the shadows. What could possibly go wrong? *ongoing, and undergoing some rewriting because i don't like it* Mature rating for swearing and dark material.
1. Chapter 1

Class B settled into their seats for their final class ever. Everyone was chattering excitedly, even the moody underpaid teachers were in a good mood. Mrs. Achino, our homeroom teacher, smiled at all of us, and went through attendance to verify that everyone was here to receive their Trainer License. I looked eagerly onto the stack of laminated cards that she brought out from behind her. I had been waiting for this moment ever since I saw my first Pokémon match on TV, a battle between Red, the current Pokémon Master, and Lance, the previous champion of the Kanto Pokémon League. I then proceeded to watch it again and again, until I memorized every move that the trainers were going to make in the clip. I snapped out of my trance once Mrs. Achino set my License on the table, a shiny red Pokédex, as well as a Pokéball. I looked on curiously onto the Pokéball. I had never heard of starters being distributed like this. Usually starting trainers got a choice between a Water, Fire and Grass type. After handing out the Pokéballs and Licenses, Mrs. Achino made her way to the front of the class.

"I'm sure you all have questions about the Pokéball currently in front of you," Mrs. Achino stated, crossing her arms and pacing back and forth like she was reading from a book. "That Pokéball contains the Pokémon you first met on the recent trip to Oak & Co. Laboratory. Apparently, the researchers were all impressed by the bond you were able to create with the Pokémon, so they decided to give them to you." My eyes widened as I looked at the Pokéball in front of me. I, like many other students, immediately grabbed the Pokéball. The cold metal sphere nestled comfortably in my hand, and I pressed the button on the front. A blue mist exploded from the Pokéball, materializing into a small brown fox that hopped immediately into my arms, smiling cheerfully.

"Eev-vui!" He exclaimed happily, snuggling further into my chest, trying to seek my body heat, even though it wasn't particularly cold outside. I laughed as he squirmed out of my arms and climbed onto my shoulder, preening. Situations like this occurred all over the classroom, the Pokémon performing various affectionate actions on their new trainer.

Mrs. Achino smiled at her class, which she had taught for over six years. It was fun to see how the new Trainers were already playing with their Pokémon. The school bell rang, and all the Trainers jumped out of their seats, not bothering to return their Pokémon.

Outside, one of my friends, Exton, tapped my on the shoulder. His black hair, which looked constantly gelled but never was, was set in bangs, swept to the left. His similarly black framed glasses with oval lenses were propped up high, and framed his relatively small dark brown eyes. His Turtwig, who he had named Atlas after its final evolution, Torterra, the Continent Pokémon, was standing faithfully by his side.

"Hey, are you excited to finally become a trainer?" He said excitedly, which was unusual for the somewhat apathetic student.

I rolled my eyes and responded. "Hello? Anyone there? I've been waiting for this for over a century!"

"...You're twelve years old." He said in a deadpan tone. Ah, there was the person I knew.

"'Twas but an exaggeration, old man." I said back to him in an equally deadpan tone.

"Anyways, you know what I'm here for." He said. We looked at each other with a fire burning in our eyes.

"When two Trainers' eyes meet, a Pokémon battle must begin!" We both chorused the first rule in the Trainer's Handbook simultaneously. We jumped back to create a suitable battlefield for the Pokémon. Atlas stepped forward, and Eevee jumped forward onto the battlefield from my shoulder, pressing down hard. I winced a bit from the force as Exton smirked.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps echoing behind me, when I turned around and someone smacked into me. We both fell to the floor. I opened my eyes. My other friend, Matthias, looked back at me. Exton faltered, confused.

"Matthias?" He asked.

"Ow..." I moaned in pain. He got off me quickly. His Eevee, my Eevee's sister stood next to us, shaking her head. Matthias had olive black hair, longer than both of ours, that was swept to the left. He was the only one out of the three of us who didn't need glasses, and had gray eyes, and a sharp chin. His signature happy-go-lucky grin was set on his face as he stared at me.

"Why did you have to run into me so hard?" I questioned. He looked back at me.

"Well, I was going to ask you to battle me, but it seems like you've already gone ahead without me!" Matthias said to me. "I'll watch for the moment, but promise me that you'll battle me next!" He said cheerfully as he ran off to the side. I blinked.

"Alright," I said, before turning back to Exton. "Come on, let's go!" I yelled. Exton nodded determinedly.

"Tackle!" Exton exclaimed, and Atlas was wreathed in a white glow as it charged forward towards Eevee.

"Jump up, and Yawn!" I exclaimed. Eevee jumped up and let out a huge yawn. White beams emerged from his mouth, and they headed towards Atlas. Atlas missed Eevee, and looked around confusedly. The white beams hit him head on, and Atlas teetered around, wooziness manifesting in his head.

"Atlas, shake it off and Seed Bomb to launch yourself towards Eevee!" Atlas shook his head and he belched out a green seed, which exploded under him, and launched him towards Eevee. Atlas struck Eevee and fell to the ground, asleep from the Yawn attack. Eevee let out a cry of pain, and stumbled backwards.

"Wish, and then Covet!" I yelled worriedly. Eevee stood up, and a white glow shone from him and ascended up to the sky. Eevee then sidled up to Atlas, and stole a Leftovers item from him. Eevee then smacked Atlas with his tail and used it as a springboard to jump back, ready for more.

Atlas woke up, and looked angrily at Eevee. The two Pokémon were now at the opposite ends of the battlefield, and were on about the same amount of HP.

"Atlas, Minefield!" Exton shouted. Atlas belched out multiple seeds and spat them out onto the battlefield. They then proceeded to explode.

"Dodge and Covet!" I yelled. Eevee tried to dodge the explosions, failing a couple of times and getting a light singe, whacking Atlas with his tail afterwards.

Eevee jumped back into battle stance, panting heavily, legs wobbling. He was on his last legs, and Exton and I both knew this. Exton smirked, but then looked confused as a smile slowly grew on my face.

"FLAIL!" I yelled, and Eevee used the last of his speed to burst towards Atlas and hit him with massive force, using the last of his energy. Exton looked on in horror as his Pokémon was pummeled by mine. Turtwig almost fainted from that, but had just enough to belch out a Seed Bomb at Eevee. Just before the Seed Bomb hit my Pokémon though, a white light descended from the sky, restoring my Eevee to around half his HP and energy. The Wish had saved us from losing the battle.

"Jump in front now!" I shouted. The proceeding explosion from the Seed Bomb hurled Eevee towards Atlas, who looked to his trainer proudly, expecting praise for his presumed victory.

"Look out, Atlas!" Exton yelped, and Atlas looked behind himself, confused. His eyes widened at the sight of the brown fox jumping towards him. Eevee crashed into Atlas, knocking him unconscious. The brown fox was still in relatively good condition despite almost falling unconscious a second ago. I gave a thumbs-up sign to the small Eevee, which then gave me a tired, but cheerful "Ee-vui!" back. Exton sighed, but recalled his Turtwig into his Pokéball. Eevee galloped back to me, jumping back onto my shoulder. I pet Eevee, who nuzzled my palm with his nose. Exton walked towards me, hand outstretched. I met him in the middle, shaking his hand.

"That was a good battle, Alvin." He said. I smiled back.

"You did good too. If I didn't call that Wish back there, I would've lost." I said, complimenting him.

"Nah, you just have better forward planning than me." He said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. He was always horrible at taking compliments. His eyes then lit up, remembering something.

"Oh, right." He took out his wallet and took out 150 Pokédollars from it, and handed it to me. I gratefully took the money and shoved it in my pocket.

"Oh, right. I was wondering if you would like to travel with me!" I said to Exton, who looked off into the distance thoughtfully.

"Sure. I mean, I have nothing else to do." He said. I pumped my hand into the air, victoriously. Matthias ran up from the sidelines. I completely forgot that he was there.

"I was wondering if I could travel with you guys too. I think it could be really fun!" He said to us.

I nodded with a weird look on my face. "Sure, but I thought that you wanted a match...?" I asked.

"Well, turns out I want to get a bit of training in before our match." Matthias said.

"Because you think you'll lose?" I taunted with a smirk on my face.

"You wish." He snorted.

"Are we going or what?" Exton said impatiently behind us, tapping his foot. We both looked at each other, and started running towards Route 1.

That's where we started. Us three, running into the first Route of the Kanto region, to start our journey to the top. Similarly, that was how our journey through Kanto ended, but with only one of us left walking towards the light.

 **Pokémon:**

Alvin

 **Eevee**  
Level 6  
Ability: Adaptability  
Nature: Naive  
Moves: Covet, Yawn, Wish, Flail

Exton

 **Turtwig (Atlas)  
** Level 7  
Ability: Overgrow  
Nature: Adamant  
Moves: Seed Bomb, Tackle, Wide Guard, Withdraw

Matthias

 **Eevee**  
Level 5  
Ability: Run Away  
Nature: Sassy  
Moves: Helping Hand, Yawn, Covet, Tail Whip


	2. Chapter 2

I sat with my legs crossed next to the fire pit tapping on my Xtransciever, a device from Unova that was able to connect to the Internet and share training tips with others. I was looking at videos of Skitty and cat-like Pokémon chasing laser pointers on the walls and utterly failing.

Exton grunted and chucked a pile of firewood into the fire pit. He then glared at me angrily.

"Would you like to help us both in setting up for the night, or continue to be a lazy pile of shit, your majesty?" He said to me snakily. I looked up from my Xtransciever and shook my head.

"Hard labour and exercise? Count me out!" I snorted. I hated any form of rigorous exercise, due to the fact that literally _every single time_ I did some form of sport I got hurt. The last time I was required to do sport for school, I fell, sprained my ankle, and had to use crutches for two weeks. I winced when I remembered that.

Matthias looked up from his setting up of Exton's tent, just as angry as him.

"COME ON MAN, WE"RE DOING EVERYTHING!" He yelled.

I rolled my eyes and got up, giving up and helping them. I used my glasses to focus the remaining sunlight and used friction to start a fire. I then took a few cans of Tamato Paste and some spaghetti, and put them over the crackling fire to heat them up. That took around half an hour to defrost and heat up. I contained various items like food and other supplies inside of my local Pokémon Centre's PC, keeping them in stasis while inside, and I could withdraw them from any Pokémon Centre for the next journey.

Exton and Matthias plopped down next to the fire, bodies both exhausted by the physical labour. I handed them two paper plates filled with generous amounts of food. They both devoured them in seconds, piling their plates with almost all of the rest of the spaghetti. I sighed and took the last bit of food.

A few hours later, they were both asleep in their tents. I was outside, in a small clearing out of the woods. I was sitting on a rock, surfing the Internet again, while Eevee was walking around taking on various types of Pokémon, like Rattata and Pidgey. I looked up just to see a Pidgey dive-bomb Eevee with a Peck attack. Eevee glowed a reddish-brown colour and jumped higher than usual, completely avoiding Pidgey. Pidgey then crashed into the ground, fainting itself. I jumped up immediately.

"Eevee, you just learned Detect!" I cheered. I immediately opened my document on my Xtransciever to view one of my move ideas.

"Eevee, can you try to use Detect again, but keep the energy instead of expending it?" I asked him. He nodded, and the reddish-brown glow returned. Eevee kept a steady flow of the energy surrounding him, occasionally grunting as he struggled to summon the abnormal glow.

"Great! Now can you use Flail with that energy instead of the usual energy?" I requested. Again, Eevee nodded, but slowly as he didn't want to disrupt the flow of energy. Using the energy, he shaped it around his body, and writhed. Every time one of his limbs struck the ground, a small tremor occurred. A Rattata appeared from the shadows, and leapt at Eevee. Without realising it, Eevee, still writhing, made contact with the Rattata and sent it flying, knocking it unconscious.

"Yes! You just learned how to do a basic version of Close Combat!" I said. Eevee stopped writhing, and panted, tired.

"I just want to do one more thing for tonight, Eevee, so you can have a small rest before we try something new." I said, letting Eevee plop down on the grassy floor, giving him a few Oran berries and some Fresh Water. Eevee devoured team both quickly, and his energy was quickly restored.

"Great. Now, can you try to use Wish twice consecutively?" I asked. A bright white light emitted from Eevee's body again, like before, and went to the sky. Eevee halted for around another minute before he released it again.

"Ah, I see. You weren't able to gather enough energy to use it at once in such a short time. Can you try to gather twice the usual amount before releasing it again?" I commanded. Eevee nodded and waited for a minute, before releasing a white glow that was lasted for double the time and double the brightness.

"You did it, Eevee!" I praised him. he preened proudly, and I stroked him. He leaned into my leg, purring gently with enjoyment.

I heard rustling leaves behind me. Figuring I had accidentally woken up my traveling partners, I turned around, ready to apologise, when I came face to face with my old classmate and one of my enemies, Aubrey. His partner, Pikachu, stood by his side, smirking deviously and releasing sparks to intimidate us. It worked on Eevee, who hissed and backed behind me.

"I guess the phrase 'Like Trainer, Like Pokémon' really is true, in your case," He said, giving me a glare. "I thought that the glow might have come from a strong Pokémon, but it turns out that it was just a weakling trying to look strong."

"Oh yeah? Try saying that when I beat you in a battle!" I blurted out involuntarily. I then grimaced and then smacked my forehead with the palm of my hand. "Look, I didn't me-" I started.

"Yeah, right. Pikachu, Battle stance." He commanded. Pikachu leapt in front of him, smiling evilly, raring to go. Eevee swallowed his fear and leapt forward to protect my and his pride.

"Wait, I-" I stumbled, What was going on?

"Pikachu, Electro Tail!" He yelled. Pikachu's tail let off a metallic sheen, and yellow sparks crackle from it. Pikachu leapt towards Eevee with an, I hate to say it, incredible speed, and swung it towards Eevee. Luckily, since Iron was extremely heavy, it lowered her speed, allowing Eevee to dodge.

"Keh. Lucky dodge." Aubrey dismissed. I realised that I had to snap out of my stupor so that Eevee wouldn't get hurt for my incompetence.

"Eevee, Blessing and Flail!" I yelled. Eevee stood still for a minute, which Aubrey interpreted as disobedience.

"You're so pathetic, your Pokémon won't even obey you. Pikachu, Quick Attack into Iron Tail." Aubrey heckled, costing him a few seconds, which was plenty for Eevee to get his Blessing off. Pikachu headed towards Eevee, before a bright light emanated from him, blinding us all. Pikachu summoned his Iron Tail, electrifying it before trying to swing it at Eevee.

"Close Combat on his tail!" I yelled. Aubrey gaped.

"HOW DOES YOUR EEVEE KNOW CLOSE COMBAT?" He yelled, forgetting the battle for a second. Eevee writhed with the reddish-brown energy, causing major damage to Pikachu since Iron Tail was a Steel-Type move, and the Fighting-Type is Super Effective against the Steel-Type, and some of Pikachu's electricity reserves were held in the tail, making Pikachu generate weaker and slower Electric moves. But Eevee made contact with Pikachu's electrified tail, shocking him and unluckily paralysing him. Pikachu and Eevee were on around equal footing now, and the next move would decide who won.

"Eevee, Flail!" I yelled.

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!" Aubrey countered.

Pikachu and Eevee headed towards each other and made contact with each other, making them both faint.

"A draw." I stated in a deadpan tone, disappointed and wondering why the Blessing hadn't appeared. Aubrey withdrew his Pikachu into her Pokéball.

"You're just lucky." Aubrey dismissed, before handing me 200 Pokédollars and heading out of the clearing.

After he left, the bright light descended and restored Eevee to normal health.

"Well, guess we learnt that as well as taking twice the amount of energy, Blessing also takes twice the amount to return to the user." I sighed, as Eevee and I watched Aubrey tromp away through the trees and tall grass.

 **Somewhere else, sometime else:**

The soft bubbling in the tanks as well as the calm classical music playing throughout the laboratory contrasted heavily with what they were doing here, Aubrey pondered on as he sat in a blue armchair, waiting for his father to finish his business in the laboratory. Various Pokémon floated in cylindrical tanks filled with bubbling green fluid all over the laboratory, as people in lab coats typed furiously on computers, and modifying conditions on the various tubes. His father approached him. "Ready to go, Aubrey?" He said with a commanding voice. Aubrey sullenly stood up, and followed his father out of the laboratory, full of suffering souls.

 **Pokémon:**

Alvin

 **Eevee**  
Level 8  
Ability: Adaptability  
Nature: Naive  
Moves: Wish, Covet, Detect, Flail

Exton

 **Turtwig (Atlas)  
** Level 8  
Ability: Overgrow  
Nature: Adamant  
Moves: Seed Bomb, Tackle, Wide Guard, Withdraw

Matthias

 **Eevee  
** Level 5  
Ability: Run Away  
Nature: Sassy  
Moves: Yawn, Covet, Tail Whip, Helping Hand


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning, I woke up to a cold and wet sensation on my face.

"What was that for?" I spluttered through the cold water. Exton and Matthias both laughed at my drenched clothes and hair, as I looked ridiculous.

"That's for doing next to nothing yesterday, shithead." Exton said, laughing his ass off.

"Payback." Matthias also said, smiling evilly.

"Fine, I've learnt my lesson." I grumbled. I went and sat back down by the fire, drying myself off. I started to prepare breakfast, beginning to feel guilty for not contributing more last night.

After a very soggy French toast and a few improperly hardboiled eggs later, we set out on our journey again. Midway through Route 1, we stopped to have a break, and perhaps practice some training. Exton and his Turtwig were working on improving their special move, Minefield, which consisted of Seed Bombs being planted in the ground instead of being thrown at the opponent. Exton was trying to teach Turtwig on how to control when the Seed Bombs would explode, giving him a further advantage if the opponent forgot or didn't realise what he was doing. Matthias, on the other hand, was trying to get more battling experience. He was fighting various Pokémon on Route 1, practicing his special move at the same time. His special move was, funnily enough, called "Self-Help". Basically, instead of using Helping Hand on an ally, his Eevee used it on herself to gain a boost. Every time a Rattata or Pidgey appeared, his Eevee took it out within two attacks or less. I, on the other hand, watched over Eevee as he kept practicing his Close Combat and summoning Fighting-Type energy. We didn't try Blessing as it would be too bright and probably attract unwanted attention, just like last night.

I suddenly saw a round brown owl-like Pokémon flapping its wings furiously, holding a few berries in its mouth and three Spearow in a V-formation chasing it, like fighter jets. I watched it for a while, before realising that they were heading for Matthias, and fast. He wasn't paying attention, but was commanding his Eevee against a particularly rare Oddish.

"LOOK OUT!" I yelled, tackling Matthias to the ground, the owl-like Pokémon and Spearow narrowly avoiding his head.

"What was that for?" He groaned, rubbing his head.

"That Pokémon and three Spearow were heading for your face." I said, holding my hand out to him, which he took, and I pulled him up. I scanned the Pokémon. It was a Rowlet, from the Alola region. I quirked an eyebrow. Extraordinarily rare.

 **-I-**

Rowlet never had had to exercise so damn hard in her entire life.

Most of her previous life had, in fact, involved perching on an old woman's shoulder, occasionally squawking and preening. After all, this was Kanto, and she was a rare Pokémon. That simple fact made her eligible to become one of the exotic pets of a rich person. Every day, she would settle into her spacious cage, with various ledges and leaves for her to perch and sleep on. She never had to battle or train, and would spend day after day sleeping, or nibbling at some Sitrus berries that were put into her bowl. Occasionally, she was let out so that she could play with the old woman's grandchildren.

Rowlet was kept in the same room with a Luxio, a shiny Pikachu and a Chingling. All of them became fast friends and banded together because they were all that each other had. Their room was awfully small for four Pokémon, and it was locked every night so that they could never escape.

Before her escape, Rowlet had no idea what the outside world looked, or was like. She had never even seen the outside, and always wanted to know more about it. Luxio was the only Pokémon that knew what it was like, and every night the Pokémon would listen to Luxio tell stories about the wild when he was a young Shinx. She was content.

One night, however, she woke up from her sleep to a small twinkling sound. Swivelling her head around, she couldn't spot anything, except... She cocked her head. Her cage was unlocked. She eagerly fluttered to the cage's door, clenching her claws on the bar, ready to push, when- She hesitated. Did she really want to escape? Rowlet's life wasn't terrible; she was happy with what life she had. Food, shelter... she couldn't ask for much more. She couldn't leave her friends here... could she? But this is what she had always wanted. To leave her cage and go and explore the wild, to have the life she never could. The creaking of the cage woke the sensitive Luxio up. Looking at her with his piercing gaze, he gave her a toothy grin.

That is what spurred her to finally push the door of her cage open, and flee out the window.

She regretted that choice now. She should have thought it out more, and now she was going to die for being hungry and stealing some berries from the Spearow. She had been flying for over an hour now. Who knew that Spearow had such great stamina?

She could feel her energy draining from her. Soon, she would fall from the sky, and the Spearow would kill her. She hurriedly flapped her wings, seeing three humans up ahead. Her vision slowly became black, as she fell unconscious out of exhaustion.

 **-I-**

The Rowlet dropped from the sky onto the ground.

Matthias gasped and ran towards it, covering it with his body. The Spearow looked at Matthias angrily, seeing red, as the short human had just taken the thief from them. The Spearow then started Pecking Matthias, making him cry out in slight pain.

Rowlet looked up weakly, seeing Matthias carrying her in his arms, the Spearow pecking at Matthias. Panicking, Rowlet, using energy that could put her into critical status, summoned her core energy to use one final Leafage, one that was more powerful than any she had summoned before. Her Leaf Bowtie shrunk a little bit, some of the limited energy stored inside disappearing. She then fell unconscious. A torrent of leaves blew into the air, stabbing the wild Spearow. The Spearow, squawking in pain, flew away timidly.

We ran as quickly as we could to the Pokémon Centre, rushing into the room.

"Nurse Joy!" He yelled, placing the Pokémon on the counter. Nurse Joy ran out, angry that someone interrupted her daily ten-minute break, before seeing the Rowlet on the counter.

"It's in critical condition. Prepare the emergency room!" She shouted, immediately grabbing the Rowlet, placed it into a stretcher the the Chansey held, a worried look on its face. Chansey immediately rushed it to the surgery room, followed by Nurse Joy. We made our way to one of the couches in the room.

"Do you think Rowlet will be alright?" Matthias fretted. Exton put a hand on his shoulder as I awkwardly struggled for words. I never was good at comforting other people. Just another thing to add to the list of things I can't do.

"It'll be fine." Exton comforted him. Exton then walked over to the PC, and tapped a few buttons. Within seconds, he held another Pokéball in his hand.

"Hmm? Who's that?" I questioned him about the Pokéball. Exton smirked and then sent out the Pokémon within. A bright white flash and a tweeting noise announced the presence of Exton's new Pokémon. A small Pidgey fluttered up to his shoulder, a red scarf tied snugly around his neck, gripping his shoulder tightly with his talons. The Pidgey then tweeted happily, nuzzling Exton's face.

"You brought Harmony?" I asked him. "I thought he was the family pet? Your parents let you take him?" Harmony was a happy little Pidgey that lived in Exton's house. Every time I came over, his Pidgey would immediately tackle me to the ground and start tweeting out a happy tune, hence his name 'Harmony'. Creative, I know. Always friendly, sometimes Harmony would follow Exton to school and perch outside the school waiting for him to finish.

"Yeah. I mean a Pidgeot wouldn't be bad to have, and I've been training him in my spare time for a few months now, so he should be okay." As Exton said this, Harmony was constantly rubbing his head against his cheek and happily tweeting. He looked deliciously uncomfortable with this. I snickered.

"Seems like he's really happy to see you." Matthias commented with a smirk. Exton shot a nasty glare in his direction. "Shut up." Exton griped before he walked off. I looked at Matthias and he shrugged. We both walked out of the Pokémon Centre

"I think we should go to Route 22 to catch some Pokémon. After all, we can't exactly beat Pewter Gym with one Pokémon, can we?" I suggested to both of them outside.

"Yeah, especially with Normal-Types." Exton then commented. Me and Matthias both turned and looked at him.

"What? Don't look at me. I have Atlas, so I think I can solo the Gym with him. You both are the ones who are going to have trouble, not me." Exton said to us. I guess he was right. Shit, I hate it when he's right. He's always right. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever. I want to get a Mankey, so I have a type-advantage." I said. We started heading towards the Route.

"I want a Nidoran." Matthias said. Exton looked at him disappointedly.

"Most of the Rock-Types native to Kanto are also part Ground-Type, which Nidoran are weak to." Exton lectured.

"Maybe, but they also learn Double Kick, which Rock-Types are weak to." Matthias countered. "Also, they're neat." This back-and-forth went on until we reached the Route.

After an hour of searching the aimless field, I sighed. Matthias and Exton sat on a rock as I waded my way through the tall grass back to the rock.

"How is it that we have seen literally no Pokémon here? These fields should be teeming with them!" I complained loudly as I sat down on the rock.

"How would I know? Maybe Arceus just doesn't want that to happen." Exton commented.

"I still can't stop thinking about the Rowlet." Matthias raised up. I groaned.

"We've heard about this for the entire hour. If you're so worried about that thing, go back to the Pokémon Centre by yourself. I'll keep searching." I grumbled at him as I made my way back into the field. I searched for so long, but it seemed like none of the Pokémon wanted to come out. The ones I did come across, some Spearow and a female Nidoran, ran away before I could even throw out a Pokéball. After another two hours, I gave up.

"Fuck. How am I supposed to beat Pewter Gym now?" I groused about my misfortune. "How is it that no Mankey were there?" Exton and I sat inside of a Café. I was sipping a Pecha Berry smoothie while Exton surfed the internet. Awkward Silence ensued. Suddenly, the door swung open with a ring of the bell connected to it. Matthias walked in with a shit-eating grin and Rowlet perched firmly on his left arm. I stood up.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!" I demanded. Now both of them had Pokémon ready to take on the first Gym. And I didn't. Of course I didn't. Added to it the fact that it was an incredibly rare Pokémon, especially in Kanto. "She came with you?!"

"Yeah. It seems she took a liking to me after I saved her." Matthias flexed on me. Rowlet huffed. As if! She only came along for the free food. If she got some training and got stronger, well that was just a bonus. She didn't want to stay out in the wild, foraging for food, like some... ruffian! She had just expected to be a freeloader, but... her new Trainer certainly was interesting. More interesting that that old woman anyways. This was bound to be... certainly something.

 **Two weeks ago:**

The creaking of a cage downstairs woke the servant up. He lit a candle, and drowsily fell out of bed, before making his way tentatively to the pet room. The door was unlocked. Hurriedly, he pushed the door open, and turned the light on. The Rowlet's cage was open, and she was nowhere to be seen. Alarmed, he turned around, ready to shout to the rest of the staff, before a white glow came from the Luxio's cage. He turned around. The Luxio seemed to turn into liquid, melting out of the cage, before reforming into... something else. A bright flash took up the room, and suddenly...

Why was he here? Blinking, the servant looked at the room with bleary eyes. Nothing seemed out of place. The two cages were still there, with Mistress' Pikachu and Chingling still inside. He turned around again, turning off the light, before heading back to his room.

 **Pokémon:**

Alvin

 **Eevee  
** Level 9  
Ability: Adaptability  
Nature: Naive  
Moves: Covet, Detect, Flail, Wish

Exton

 **Turtwig (Atlas)  
** Level 10  
Ability: Overgrow  
Nature: Adamant  
Moves: Seed Bomb, Wide Guard, Tackle, Withdraw

Matthias

 **Eevee**  
Level 8  
Ability: Run Away  
Nature: Sassy  
Moves: Helping Hand, Covet, Tail Whip, Yawn

 **Rowlet  
** Level 11  
Ability: Overgrow  
Nature: Quirky  
Moves: Peck, Confuse Ray, Ominous Wind, Leafage


	4. Chapter 4

On Route 22, the Pidgey tweeted in the trees, the Nidoran hopped around trying to find some vegetables to consume, the Mankey hopped around from tree to tree, and the Electabuzz's electricity whirred... Wait. Electabuzz aren't found on this Route. I poked my head out from the tent, my tent being the sole one in the trees. Yesterday, after we tried to release Rowlet, we went to go set up our tents, then found out that it was already Six P.M. When we started to set up our tents, it started to rain, so we trudged to the Pokémon Centre to rest for a bit. Nurse Joy looked at us sheepishly as we walked into the Centre. I walked up to the counter and asked for a room. Unfortunately, no rooms were available. Nurse Joy, however, felt bad for falsely accusing Matthias, let us have the room behind the counter for the night, but it only fit two sleeping bags. I grudgingly relented my space, and started to set up my tent in the dark, rainy night.

"Elec-TABUZZ!" Electabuzz growled as it released another jolt of electricity, shocking the trees around it. I looked onto the Pokémon, amazed at its sheer power, before throwing a Pokéball at it. The Pokéball bounced off of its head, and the Electabuzz turned around with an angry expression on its face, before advancing at me. I scrambled to my feet and slowly backed away before a red beam of energy recalled the Pokémon back into its Pokéball.

"Sorry 'bout that. Electabuzz gets really energetic in the morning." A purple haired guy said, rubbing the back of his head as he did so.

"Name's Tim. Not Timmy, not Timothy, Tim. Ya got that?" He said, reaching out his hand for a handshake. I took it, shaking his hand firmly.

"Anyways, how did you get a rare Pokémon like Electabuzz?" I asked.

"Well, when I became a trainer, instead of a regular starter, my dad gave me an Elekid that his Elective had given birth to just recently, and he soon became my Electabuzz here." He replied. I squinted at him, as he looked familiar.

"Wait... is your dad Paul Shinji?" I asked, amazed.

"Yeah. Everyone says that I'm the spitting image of him." He said, embarrassed.

"Well, you do have his hair." I offered.

"Okay...? Well, I'd best get going, then." He said, turning around and walking off. I looked at his figure disappearing in the distance as I packed up my small tent. Minutes later, I ran to the Pokémon Centre. Matthias and Exton were both waiting in the spot we had agreed to wait in.

"Hey!" I yelled loudly as I barged into the Pokémon Centre. They waved cheerfully too.

"So, let's get going, then?" Matthias said, and we both nodded. We all headed out the door of the Pokémon Centre, headed for Pewter City. However, on the entrance to Route 2, a few men wearing black uniforms with a large red "R" in the centre were cornering an old man, whose only protection was a small red and black cat, who hissed at the men with black uniforms. In front of the men were a Koffing, Ekans, and Magnemite.

"Come on, old man, give us the money and your Pokémon, and you won't get hurt." The man on the right sneered at the old man, who was fumbling around in his bag for his Pokégear.

"Looking for this?" The man of the left said smugly, holding a red device, quite clearly the man's Pokégear. The man, realising that there was no other option, looked at the men sternly.

"I'll never submit to Team Rocket scum like you!" He said angrily, the cat in front of him hissing and letting out an Ember attack. The Ember burned the middle Team Rocket Grunt's hand severely. He recoiled, and let out a scream of pain. The old man smirked.

"That's it!" The Team Rocket Grunt yelled angrily, pulling out another Pokéball.

"I'm gonna go on." Matthias said seriously, already starting to run towards the situation. Exton grabbed his wrist just in time to stop him.

"Think about it first. If you get involved too, then you might be in trouble too." Exton reasoned calmly.

Matthias let out a sigh and stopped in his path.

The Team Rocket Grunt sent out a Charizard from his Pokéball, which roared angrily, shaking fear into the hearts of all that heard it, except for the Team Rocket Members, who smirked.

"W-what is that monstrosity?!" The old man stammered out, eyes wide, mouth agape at the giant Charizard, which rippled with muscles. It was the most powerful Charizard I had ever seen, more powerful than Lance's, and he was part of the Elite Four, for god's sake!

The Charizard snorted angrily, a jet of flame shooting out of its nose, torching the old man. In less than half a second, the man was vaporised. It looked as it the man had never been there at all. The small red cat jumped in fright and ran off into the forest. The Charizard then turned around to face the triumphant Team Rocket Grunts, who then opened their eyes to an angry Charizard. It then shot out giant spheres of burning gas from its mouth, and the Rocket Grunts were vaporised too, the Charizard's Pokéball falling to the ground, the only thing that remained of the Grunts. The Charizard then let out a humungous roar, frightening everybody in the vicinity.

"Charizard, return." A deep voice said from behind. A man with spiky black hair, and wearing a hat that was half red and half white, with a green loopy "L" in front of the hat. The Charizard bowed its head to the trainer, who then returned the Charizard in a flash of red light.

Matthias suddenly broke out of Exton's grip, and rushed towards the trainer.

"YOUR POKÉMON JUST KILLED FOUR PEOPLE AND YOU DON'T SEEM TO GIVE A SHIT!" He yelled as he rushed towards the trainer. Luckily, before he could get close to the trainer, Tim came out of nowhere and held him back, staring at the Charizard's trainer with a cold glare.

"Ash Ketchum. I'm amazed you had the gall the show your face around these parts." Tim said coldly towards the trainer, which we now knew to be Ash Ketchum.

"...And who are you?" Ash questioned, with a blank look on his face.

"The son of a man that you tried to kill years ago!" Tim burst out in a fit of anger.

"Oh, yeah. I must remember to track down Paul and kill him too..." As said towards Tim before muttering to himself.

"YOU'RE FUCKING DEAD!" Tim finally broke and charged towards Ash, Pokéball in hand. "ELECTIVIRE, I CHOOSE YOU!"

"I guess I have time to kill you too..." Ash said listlessly, before sending out is monstrous Charizard. Suddenly, his pocket started vibrating, and he took out his Pokédex. He held it to his ear, and listened to the voice coming from the Pokédex.

"...uh huh...yeah...got it. See you in a second." Ash replied, then slid the Pokédex back into his pocket.

"Well, it seems like I don't have the time to kill you now. Don't worry, I'll find you again. Bye." Ash said calmly and smoothly, as if he hadn't just issued a death threat. Ash boarded his Charizard.

"ELECTIVIRE, THUNDERBOLT!" Tim roared angrily. Before the lightning struck the flying salamander, it took off, and it was gone in half a second.

Tim's fists tightened as Ash got away.

"GODDAMNIT!" Tim yelled at no one in particular, before stomping away.

Everyone in the close vicinity stared in shock as we all tried to process the events that had just occurred.

 **Somewhere in Kanto:**

Ash's Charizard landed on the landing pad, and Ash withdrew it into its Pokéball, before turning to the scientist hiding in the shadows.

"You needed me?" Ash asked simply, staring at the man in the white coat.

"Yes. I needed to report to you that Project: Yugo is in progress. We are currently at Stage Two now. We just need you to find and capture these Pokémon now, and we should be around finishing Stage Two."

"Got it." Ash said, before grabbing the list and looking at it, an insane grin filling his face. The scientist shuddered, as from personal experience, this was the expression of someone who had gone completely and utterly insane. He knew this grin very long ago...

Ash sent out his Pidgeot, before grabbing onto it again and setting out for Shamouti Island.


	5. Chapter 5

"We've stayed in this town for almost an entire week now! Can we leave, please?" Matthias begged us, as we were training on Route 22 again, trying to train up for the first Gym, the Pewter Gym. The gym leader Forrest Slate, used Rock-Type Pokémon. Around three days ago, we realised that we had no solid way of beating Forrest. Well, 'we' was more like I, since Exton and Matthias sure did, with their Turtwig and Rowlet respectively. We decided to stay another three days in Viridian to train up. Exton decided that Atlas was strong enough to take on the Gym by himself, and not to train Harmony as much due to not using him in the Gym.

"Look. I'm in a bad position right now. I have an Eevee. It is resisted by Rock. It can literally do nothing to the first Gym-Leader. I need as much help as I can get. Please, help me train so that I can beat him. You _are_ one of my best friends, right?" I said, desperate and using my largest Rockruff-eyes on him.

"Right," Matthias grumbled, then turned back to his tussling Pokémon. "Rowlet, Leafage! Eevee, Tackle!"

Rowlet summoned a small swirling tornado of leaves, forcing it to hurtle towards Eevee. Eevee saw the tornado heading towards her, and suddenly got a gleam in her eyes. She dashed towards the tornado, going at her maximum speed, trying to ride the walls of the tornado. As she got to the middle, and seemed ready to drop right off, she suddenly got a white glow, and sped ahead with incredible speed, successfully riding the walls of the tornado and leaping at the shocked Rowlet, making it collapse on the floor. Rowlet got off the floor slowly, an angry look on his face, before leaping back into the air backwards, and launching a Leafage. Some of the leaves blew a chilly, unsettling breeze towards us, letting us know that Rowlet had mixed his Leafage with an Ominous Wind, making the tornado of leaves more powerful and larger than before. The attack almost seemed like a...

"LEAF STORM!" Matthias yelled excitedly. The tornado sucked in Eevee, wo tried to use the same trick as before. Unfortunately for her, Ominous Wind was a Ghost-Type attack, so the energy from the attack nullified her Normal-Type attacks. She didn't fall out, though, because of the Leafage. The Leaf Storm then slowly fell apart, leaving a fainted Eevee on the floor. Matthias knelt down by the fainted fox, popping the revive into her mouth. The medicine slowly dissolved, and Eevee jumped up, gagging from the taste of the Revive.

"Open your mouth, please." Matthias said to Eevee. Eevee then opened her mouth. Matthias then sprayed a purple liquid into her mouth. She then closed her mouth, swallowing it. The cuts from the sharp leaves on her body slowly closed up, as her regeneration ability was pushed to the fullest.

Rowlet then fluttered down onto Matthias' shoulder, hooting loudly. As Matthias stood up, Rowlet fell off his shoulder, landing on the forest floor. Matthias laughed and picked him up, and placed him upright.

"Alright, you two. I want Rowlet to practice Leafage and Leaf Storm on thhe tree over there, and I want Eevee to go and use Independence, then Quick Attack on the rock over there, okay?" Matthias requested. The two Pokémon nodded and went off to practice their respective moves.

I turned to my Eevee. "Alright, can you practice Close Combat over there, on the tree, please?" I asked. Eevee, without even hearing me finish, bounded off and started thrashing the tree.

"Atlas, I want you to start practicing Minefield, but can you try producing more seeds, please?" Exton asked. Atlas cheerfully nodded, and turned around, starting to belch seeds out of his mouth.

"Right. While they're doing that, we should prepare lunch for everyone. We'll be heading out soon, so please don't wander off too far." I said to the others. "Can you guys go collect some water?" I said to them.

"Can you promise me that you'll do something?" Exton said, pushing his glasses down a bit, glaring at me. Harmony also imitated his glare, funnily enough, and tweeted disappointedly. Like Trainer, like Pokémon, I guess.

"Yeah, yeah, sure. Now go." I did a shooing motion with my hand, and turned away from them. They then headed off into the woods, trying to find the materials.

I turned around and watched the Pokémon for a bit, before tapping on my Xtransciever to retrieve some food from my storage.

 **Close by:**

The small feline crept around the forest, jumping instinctively at every sound, paranoid. It hissed a bit, before meowing sadly. It curled up into a ball, tired from the day, and wanting to take a rest. Before long, it fell asleep.

A small buzzing sound entered the Litten's ear, the small cat twitching for a second before jumping up and entering a hasty battle stance. In the distance, a swarm of giant bees buzzed by, possibly traveling back to their hive. Litten relaxed a little bit, the tension in its body fading, before taking a small step forward onto a hidden branch, which coincidentally acted like a lever for a small stone at the other end of it, launching the stone into the air and hitting a Beedrill straight in the abdomen. The Beedrill turned around, facing the direction that the stone came from, and its buzzing became faster and louder, which alerted the other Beedrill. They then started to fly at a rapid speed towards the small fire cat.

The Litten saw the bees and jumped, before running wildly in the other direction. The bees, assuming that the Litten was responsible, started chasing it.

 **In the clearing:**

I placed the six cans down onto the floor, before hearing rapid footsteps behind me, and a loud buzzing noise. I whirled around before a small red cat leaped into my chest, knocking me over. The Beedrill approached rapidly. I slid the small cat off me, the feline meowing at me, before three barbs plunged into it. The Poison Stings knocked the cat down to the floor, and the Beedrill lowered their stings, before slowly buzzing off.

I quickly scanned the cat with my Xtransciever. I found out that the small cat was a Litten, a fire type from the Alola Region, with the ability Blaze. I noticed that the Litten was critically injured as well as poisoned, almost being fainted. I quickly enlarged one of my Pokéballs, before tapping it to the Litten, capturing it and putting it into stasis, preventing it from being afflicted by any status conditions. I put the Litten's Pokéball in my bag, and set a reminer on my Xtransciever to heal it up the next time when we reached a Pokémon Centre.

The Beedrill turned back around, hearing the sound of a Pokéball click shut, and again angered that someone had rescued their attacker. buzzed towards me.

 **Somewhere Else:**

Ash Ketchum descended from his monstrous Charizard, landing on the beach of Shamouti Island. He then returned his Charizard to its Pokéball, and called out a similarly gigantic tortoise, with a giant brown shell, and two Howitar cannons strapped to its back. It fell into the water, and made a huge splash, sending a wave towards Ash, before Ash's eyes glowed blue, and the wave parted around him. "Blastoise, we need to get to Fire Island. Let's go." Ash commanded. The Blastoise nodded, before lying belly-first into the water. Ash got onto the Blastoise's back, before it Surfed off at a high speed.


	6. Chapter 6

"HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET AN ENTIRE HIVE OF BEEDRILL TO GO AFTER YOU?" Exton yelled angrily.

"HOW SHOULD I KNOW?" I yelled back. Currently, we were running through Viridian Forest, trying to escape an entire hive of Beedrill. Rowlet clung to Matthias' head, and Harmony clung to Exton's head as well, making them both look stupid as they ran with two birds clinging onto their heads. I, on the other hand, was not hindered by a clingy bird, and ran ahead of the two, making it to a clearing. I had no time to check our GPS as the horde of Beedrill followed us. Unfortunately, the thing with Pokémon are that they are faster, stronger and have more endurance than human bodies. Humans like us easily tired, while a horde of Beedrill could travel at a constant speed for around a day in pursuit of prey. All in all, not the best situation to have gotten ourselves into. I tripped over a branch, which came out of nowhere, and the two boys following me tripped on me, landing on each other and making a human pile. The Beedrill saw this as an opportunity and surrounded us, pushing inwards. We scrambled to get up, facing all directions as the bees closed in.

Suddenly, I had an idea.

"Exton, hand me a potion." I commanded. Without asking, Exton stuck his hand in his bag and took out a potion. I grabbed it, and took out Litten's Pokéball from my bag, inserting the nozzle of the potion into the Pokéball, which glowed blue and started sucking the liquid in. Potions healed Pokémon well, but not completely. It would just give Litten a boost of energy for a little while.

"Matthias, send out Rowlet." I said. Matthias nodded and sent out his Rowlet, waiting for my command. I then sent out Litten, which yelped and hissed as the bees started to get a bit too close for comfort.

"Litten, use Ember." Litten, being scared, didn't question my order and immediately spat out a burning ball of Fire into the air.

"Now, Ominous Wind!" I yelled, as the bees got close enough to sting. Rowlet panicked and summoned a flurry of otherworldly wind, which hit the ball of fire, spinning it around. The fire, absorbing the oxygen in the air, blazed intensely, creating a barrier of fire that the Beedrill could not cross. However, the Beedrill waited, sure that they would get their victims.

"I'll help too! Harmony, Gust!" Exton cried out. Harmony dislodged himself from his head and flapped his wings. Glowing with energy, he commanded the Flying-Type energy in the air into gusts of winds, which powered-up Rowlet's Ominous Wind. This helped fuel the fire even more. The blaze started creating large amounts of light, blinding a few of the Beedrill.

"Litten, Ember again! Rowlet and Harmony, expand!" I yelled, and Litten spat out another fireball, while Rowlet and Harmony slowly enlarged the ghostly wind, a look of intense concentration on their faces. The fire intensified, and the flames licked at the bees from the expanding wind barrier. As everyone knows, Bug-Types such as Beedrill are immensely weak to fire. The flames touched the Beedrill, sending them alight, freaking them out and making them fly in all directions to try to put out the fire, scattering them. As the Beedrill left one by one, I returned my Litten, whispering words of praise to it, before I gave Matthias the signal to return Rowlet, giving the leafy bird a rest. Panting, Harmony stopped as well, clenching his talons on Exton's head once more. He winced. Once the winds died down, I grabbed both of their wrists, and dragged us both away from the clearing, and seeing a building to the north, ran right through the gate to Pewter City, finally making our way to our first stop on our journey.

Panting, I finally stopped, before slowly making our way to the Pokémon Centre. I booked us a room for the night, and left our Pokémon for Nurse Joy, and when I got to our room, fell onto the bed and slept. The other two soon followed suit.

At 10 PM, I woke up, with the two other boys still asleep. Grabbing my bag and Pokéballs, I left the two in the room, so I could train. Pewter City at night was peaceful, and was like a ghost town. You could hear the Hoothoot and Noctowl letting out cries, and the scurrying of Rattata on Route 2.

First I sent out Eevee. "Eevee, today we have to release someone. They might be a bit jumpy, so you're here to calm them down." I explained to my little brown fox. Eevee nodded, and let out a cry, took out Litten's Pokéball, and sent the red cat out. The Litten appeared in a battle stance, and lunged at me. I fell backwards in shock as Eevee tackled Litten in midair, sending it to the ground. I scanned the Litten with my Xtransciever, finding out it was a Female, had the moves Heat Wave, Fire Fang, Crunch and Lick. I frowned, wondering how it forgot Ember, but realised that the levels it had gained let it learn the move Fire Fang, making it forget Ember. I also checked the Original Trainer section, and found out that it was a man named Blaine, who looked like the man that had been incinerated by Ash's Charizard. I knelt down to the Litten as it got up, with a straight face, as Litten usually took smiles as a challenge.

"Litten, I'm sure you're a great Pokémon, but your Trainer is gone." I said. The small cat's face changed into one of sorrow, sitting down on the ground and letting out a morose cry. "I'm sorry for your loss. Your Trainer was killed by a group named Team Rocket, a criminal organisation here in Kanto." The small cat looked up, its face changed to a one of fury. It meowed aggressively at me, before pushing her head into her Pokéball, returning her, and sending a clear message to me.

"Well... Alright then. I guess we don't have to release her." I said disbelievingly. "We still have to do training though."

I sent out the Litten, before kneeling down to it again.

"Look, now that I know you want revenge on the group that killed your Trainer, we have to train to get stronger, alright?" I explained to the Litten. The Litten meowed agreeably, before plopping down on the floor.

"Right, now that I know your moves, can you try to use Crunch on that tree over there, while using your Fire Fang too?" I requested. Litten nodded, before charging at the tree, opening her mouth and summoning a giant flaming jaw , which bit down on the bark, sending shards of wood everywhere.

"Wow, that was...quick." I said, disbelievingly. I looked back at my Xtransciever, before coming up with another combo.

"Alright, Litten, can I get you to use a Heat Wave, but right in front of you, and upwards?" I asked.

The Litten nodded, and tried to summon the wave of flame. Sometimes, a few waves would make it to me, but Eevee tackled me out of the way. Soon enough, Litten got it, and kept it there while turning to me and meowing happily.

"Wow, you get these really quickly. Now let's move on to these combos..."

I was lying back in my Pokémon Centre room. The training session was incredibly productive. Litten was a quick learner, and picked up how to combine and use her moves, as well as leveling-up a bit and gaining better control of her Fire-Type energy. Soon, she would be a beast and could probably spark a blaze within a second. I almost salivated at the thought. Then I realised something.

 _"Shit. A Fire-Type against the Rock-Type Gym?! Why do I keep doing this?"_ I yelled at myself in my head.


	7. Chapter 7

"Right, let's go." Matthias said cheerfully, as he pulled the blankets off of my exhausted body. I groaned displeasedly and tugged the blankets out of his grasp, wanting to get some sleep. Last night I worked until 1 AM, when I trudged back to the Pokémon Centre. Currently, it was 7 AM, and the two were up and about preparing for today's gym battle with Forrest Slate, Pewter City's Gym Leader.

"Fine, fine, fine." I groaned as I pushed my body out of bed, hitting the floor. I scrambled to my feet quickly, grasping at the table for my glasses, before finally finding them, slipping them on my face, and walking to the bathroom to get ready. By 8 AM, everybody had finally finished getting ready, and we three headed to the gym, Nurse Joy giving us some words of encouragement.

"She really liked you, eh? No surprise, coming from Matthias." I nudged Matthias with my elbow, a big shit-eating grin on my face. Matthias sighed, and pushed my away, me crashing into Exton, us both giggling wildly. When we were in Primary School, all the girls had a crush on Matthias at one point, and even now we still liked to tease him about it. Matthias, as always was wearing some sort of sportswear, which I frequently despaired upon, as he had no actual clothes. Exton was dressed casually, which contrasted to his behaviour, and I was dressed in a hoodie and jeans, my Pokéballs strapped on my bag strap.

We finally arrived at the building which was decorated like a typical Pokémon Gym. All the Pokémon Gyms' exteriors were exactly the same, so Trainers always knew which building was the Gym. As we entered the building, I made a beeline for the receptionist, the other two following behind.

"Hi, I registered a battle for today. My name is Alvin." I said to the receptionist, who checked her list, and verified that we were who we said we were through our Trainer Cards, before pressing a button that opened the doors to the Gym. Inside, the Gym was dark, with the only light being the one from the door we had entered from.

"Hello?" I yelled, the sound echoing through the Gym. Suddenly, a bright light shone down onto the middle of the field, revealing a man with eyes that looked like they were closed, and spiky brown hair.

"Hello. I am Forrest Slate, the Gym Leader of Pewter City. You must be the challengers." His voice boomed out. The lights in the Gym then turned on, revealing a rocky battlefield.

"DIBS!" I yelled excitedly, stepping forward.

"I guess you'll be my first Challenger of the day, Challenger..." Forrest trailed off, waiting expectantly for my name.

"Alvin Yan, the future Champion." I said with a smirk.

"Pretty big talk from a No-Badge. But let us dawdle no more! Geodude, let's go!" Forrest said, before taking a Pokéball out from his belt, and sending out a rock with two arms, and a face. Not very impressive, but it was a Geodude.

"Litten, let's go!" I yelled, taking of my first Pokéball and sending out my Litten.

"A Fire-Type against a Rock/Ground-Type? I guess you really are a newbie." Forrest chided.

"Don't underestimate us!" I yelled, incensed by Forrest's insult.

"Alright then. Geodude, Sand Attack!" Forrest commanded. Geodude shot a cloud of sand into the air towards Litten.

"Litten, Elemental Shield!" I countered. Litten summoned a moving wall of flame, which forced the sand and dirt upwards.

"I guess I was wrong. Show me what you've got! Geodude, Rollout!" Forrest said. Geodude wrapped itself up into a ball, and launched itself at Litten.

"Jump and Fire Tide!" I yelled. As Geodude neared Litten, she jumped, avoiding the rock, and summoned two waves of fire, which crashed into Geodude, making it wince a bit and lose concentration.

"Flame Crunch, now!" I said quickly. Litten jumped at the rock, summoning the giant jaws of flame, which gnawed on Geodude. Geodude winced this time, before catching alight.

"Our turn! Tackle!" Forrest called out. Geodude then launched itself towards Litten, barreling at top speed.

"Jet Up!" I yelled, and Litten summoned a jet of fire underneath herself, which launched her upwards, dealing a little bit of damage to herself.

"CRUNCH!" I yelled as Litten fell, and she summoned the jaws again, which bit on Geodude, finally fainting it. I returned Litten quickly before she fell.

"Congratulations, Challenger. You have beaten the first of my Pokémon. However, since you have withdrawn, we both have one Pokémon left. Onix, go!" Forrest boomed, and sent out a giant snake, made of boulders, a giant horn on its forehead.

"I'm not gonna quit now!" I yelled back, and sent out Eevee.

"Onix, Wrap!" Forrest yelled. His Onix hurtled towards Eevee, but Eevee stood his ground.

"Checkmate. Close Combat." I said, with a grin. As Onix surrounded Eevee, he jumped onto the snake, and proceeded to batter it unconscious with his makeshift Fighting-Type move. Forrest then calmly returned his Onix.

"Fair play. Here, Challenger Alvin, I present you with your winnings." Forrest said, holding out a wad of cash, a white disk, which I recognised as a TM, and a small shiny pin, which was the Boulder Badge.

"Thanks!" I said cheerfully, pocketing the cash, sliding the TM into my bag, and registering my fingerprint to the badge, so it couldn't be stolen by anyone else. I then pinned it to my bag. I then stepped off the platform, Matthias and Exton coming to their senses, closing their jaws. Matthias stepped up.

"Next Challenger, state your name." Forrest said.

"I'm Matthias Shaddock, and I'll be just as good, if not better, than your last Challenger!" Matthias said excitedly.

"I hope you live up to your words, young man. Rhyhorn, go!" Forrest commanded, as he released a grey rhino-like Pokémon onto the field, a horn on its nose.

"Eevee, let's go!" Matthias said as he released Eevee, who let out a battle cry.

"Rhyhorn, Rock Throw!" Forrest commanded, and his Rhyhorn picked up a rock from the ground, and threw it with force at the small fox.

"Dodge, and jump." Matthias commanded. As the rock approached Eevee, a white aura surrounded her, and she sped off, the rock falling into the dirt, before jumping onto Rhyhorn.

"Rhyhorn, shake her off!" Forrest commanded, and Rhyhorn thrashed around wildly to try to shake Eevee off. It finally flung her to the floor.

"Eevee! Double Kick!" Matthias said urgently. Eevee jumped up and summoned a brownish aura, kicking Rhyhorn twice in the face, fainting it. Unfortunately, Rhyhorn fell forward, crushing Eevee, fainting her too.

"Damn, I was hoping to use her for the next round too." Matthias sighed, returning his Eevee. Forrest returned his Rhyhorn, before holding up a Pokéball.

"Aron, go!" He yelled, letting out a small steel Pokémon on all fours, with large blue eyes and various holes in its armour.

"Shit. Oh well, Rowlet, go!" Matthias sighed, then sent out his Rowlet, who fluttered to the floor.

"Aron, Mud Slap!" Forrest instructed. Aron kicked up some mud towards Rowlet, who flew up high, and dodged without Matthias commanding her.

"Hm. You must be good, your Pokémon being able to rely to their instincts without commands. Anyways, Headbutt!" Forrest commanded. Aron immediately lowered its head, before charging quickly at Rowlet. Rowlet couldn't react in time, and got hit by the attack, sending her flying.

"Rowlet, Razor Leaf!" Matthias yelled. Rowlet fluttered her wings in the air, floating, before summoning sharp leaves that glowed with a light green aura, before sending them flying at Aron. Once the leaves hit Aron, nothing happened. The leaves just slid down its steel coating.

"Hah! You can't touch my Aron under its hard steel armour!" Forrest boasted. "Rock Slide!"

Aron summoned some boulders above Rowlet, which crashed into her, sending her to the ground. Rowlet got up slowly, panting heavily, before a bright light surrounded her, before she rose into the air.

"She's...evolving!" Matthias exclaimed. As the light died down, we saw how much Rowlet had changed. Now, Rowlet, or should I say Dartrix, sported a tuft of green hair, and she had grown to around half of Matthias' height. Her leaf bowtie had grown bigger, signifying a bigger boost of power.

"Congratulations, Challenger, but that won't help you against Aron. Aron, Mud Slap!" Forrest said, before Aron sent another jet of mud at Dartrix. Dartrix easily avoided it, before turning to Matthias, and smirking.

"Right. Spirit Arrow!" Matthias commanded, smirking two. Dartrix launched herself at Aron, summoning a ring of sharp leaves around her, which rotated due to an Ominous Wind blowing them around.

"Don't you remember how that ended?" Forrest taunted, confident in his abilities.

"Don't get cocky. Shoot!" Matthias yelled, pointing towards Aron. Aron stood there, bracing for the attack, while Dartrix expanded her ring, and sending them towards Aron. However, this time, she directed the leaves into the holes in Aron's steel armour. Aron let out a cry of pain, the leaves stabbing into it, before fainting.

"Wha-wha-how?" Forrest spluttered.

"Simple. You said 'under its steel armour'. That means that it was a Rock-Type under the armour." Matthias smiled. He then stepped down from the platform, gesturing to Exton. Exton then stepped onto the platform.

"Fine." Forrest grumbled, before pocketing the the Pokéballs, and readying two more. "Ready, Challenger..."

"Exton." Exton said simply, before sending out Atlas.

"To the point, eh? Well then, go, Anorith!" Forrest said, sending out a big with six feathers on both sides, and claws on both its head and tail.

"Minefield!" Exton shouted. Atlas spit out green seeds quickly around the battlefield, making it so that Anorith would have to be very careful. Anorith let out a small scream and wriggled back, uncertain of what these things were.

"Bug Bite!" Forrest yelled. Anorith leapt forward at Atlas, which looked upon the ancient bug in fear.

"Dodge!" Exton shouted. Atlas jumped up as Anorith jumped at the empty space that was previously filled by Atlas.

"Dig!" Forrest commanded. When Anorith hit the ground, it dug a hole down into the floor of the gym making it impossible for Atlas to sense where it was. Atlas looked side to side in panic, not being able to see his enemy.

"Atlas, calm down and use Seed Bomb close to you!" Atlas nodded and spit out a bunch of Seed Bombs around itself, before a small rumble in the floor was heard, and Exton, presumably guessing that Anorith was about to resurface, told Atlas to prepare to dodge. Within seconds, a small grey insect leapt out of the ground underneath Atlas, nailing him in the gut with a Bug Bite before making contact with the Seed Bombs, and being launched across the gym. Atlas, breathing heavily, fell to the ground, making his way to his feet before glowing with the same white light as Matthias' Dartrix.

"Wow, two evolutions in one day, at the time wen you need it most. Arceus must be sending you two Deus Ex Machinas right now." I commented, seeing the weirdly coincidental evolution times, while I shielded my eyes from the light. When it died down, Atlas had evolved into a turtle-like Pokémon with a light green belly and yellow armour, with two bushes on his back.

"GROTLE!" Atlas exclaimed before jumping up and landing on the ground, his impact sending tremors through the floor, and finally reaching Anorith, the tremors making the small fossil bounce all over the place, fainting it. Forrest returned his Anorith, before Atlas crashed to the ground, having used the last of his energy using Earthquake.

"Send out your final Pokémon, Challenger." Forrest said. Exton clenched his teeth, before sending out Harmony, who let out a determined chirp. Forrest sent out a blue diamond encrusted rock, which I recognised as a Carbink.

 _"Shit. Harmony wasn't supposed to battle. How is he going to win now?"_ I thought to myself, gripping my fist. I did want him to win this as well, so we could all win at the same time, and share the first milestone on our journey together.

"Carbink, Stealth Rock!" Forrest yelled at his Pokémon, which launched itself into the ground, drilling until the floor underneath it broke into fractured pieces, and floated into the air, ready to hit at any moment.

"Harmony, Gust!" Exton yelled, knowing that if he got close, the Stealth Rocks would instantly faint it. The small brown bird flapped its wings towards the living geode embedded with gems, summoning a large wave of wind, and hit it without doing much to it. However, that wasn't the point of the attack. Some of the Seed Bombs that Atlas had set up made their way into the gust of wind, and hit the rock. Forrest, who was getting cocky, gasped as he saw Carbink be hit by the attack. As the seeds hit Carbink, they exploded, launching the rock backwards, leaving small dents in it. Forrest clenched his fists.

"Carbink, Fairy Wind!" Forrest yelled. Carbink summoned a pink wind out of nowhere, and launched it towards Harmony. Similarly to the Gust, the wind picked up the Stealth Rocks, and they flew towards Harmony.

"Harmony, Gust again!" Exton yelled. Harmony hastily flapped his wings, and caught the rest of the Seed Bombs on the floor, which flew across the battlefield. The field became a hurricane of greens, blues, pinks, and browns, as the elements battled fiercely. The Seed Bombs hit the Stealth Rocks, exploding them apart. As the last few bombs made their way to Carbink, Forrest gritted his teeth and commanded Carbink to push harder.

As the bombs hit Carbink, and making it fall to the ground, a Stealth Rock hit Harmony right in the chest.

"Pi-pidge..." Harmony croakily tweeted out. The Stealth Rock had pierced straight through Harmony's ribcage, the jutted edge coming out the other side of his small body. His chest feathers were stained a dark blood red, and small droplets of blood started forming at the wound site, before slowly dropping down his feathers, finally ending up on a pool on the Gym floor. Harmony turned his head back to Exton, his deep, dark brown eyes looking deep into his with shock, before falling to the floor.

The world became a blur of colours and shouts as I saw Exton collapse to his knees in shock, and Forrest shouting out, and returning his fainted Carbink. A crew of Pokémon Centre Employees rushed into the Gym, and carrying Harmony out, trying to rescue it. All I could think about was that I would never be able to hear Harmony's happy tweeting or singing ever again.


	8. Chapter 8

Peering down from the balcony of the Pokémon Centre, I saw Forrest anxiously pacing up and down.

"Alright. You ready?" I asked Exton. Exton nodded.

"As I'll ever be." He said. I patted him on the back, and both of us stepped onto the escalator to go down to the bottom floor. Matthias was currently in a call with his folks, and couldn't get away. After the death of Exton's Pidgey, we were called by Forrest to meet him on the bottom floor of the Pokémon without further explanation. Exton didn't want to go, but I convinced him to, because I didn't want to get on the Leader's bad side, as well as a hope to resolve any anger towards each other.

"Well, hello again, Challenger Alvin and Challenger Exton." Forrest said as he saw us descend from the upper floor. "Where's your other friend?"

"He's currently occupied about something." I waved my hand dismissively. "Anyways, why did you ask us to come here?"

"Well, I wanted to apologise." Forrest said as he rubbed the back of his head. "I didn't mean to hit your Pidgey so hard, or kill it. I'm really sorry for that. I hope you'll forgive me." He said as he bowed.

Exton sweatdropped. "No problem..." He trailed off.

"Anyways, because of the...'incident', I didn't get to give you all your badges, TMs, and prize money. So here you are." Forrest handed us three cases, all packed with $2,000, the Bide Technical Machine and the Boulder Badge, a pin that signified that we had triumphed over the Pewter Gym.

"Thank you." I said graciously, stuffing the three into my backpack.

"And for you, Challenger Exton, I have something to give to you." Forrest said, and took out a Pokéball from his pocket. "This Pokémon was bred by my mother, but no one seems to want it. I know you need to have another Flying-Type, so here you go."

Exton received the Pokéball with both hands, clipping it onto his belt. "Thank you, Forrest."

"Anytime. Now, I must attend to other matters." Forrest said, before turning around and leaving the Pokémon Centre. He pulled out a phone, speaking into it silently.

"Have you given him the Pokémon?" a voice whispered from the other end.

"It is done." Forrest replied, before hanging up.

I turned to Exton. "Well, let it out, let's see what it is!" I encouraged him. Exton threw the Pokéball up into the air, letting out what seemed like a small white cloud, connected to a rotund small light blue body.

"SWABLU!" The bird cried out. "Hey, it's a Swablu!" I excitedly said. "Scan it, quick!" Exton said.

"It says here that she's female, nicknamed Melody- Hey, I just remembered I need to nickname my Pokémon- anyways, she's Level 15, with a Calm nature, and has the moves Sing, Peck, Astonish, and Disarming Voice." I said, listing of what my Xtransciever read. Exton nodded every time I spoke a word, and when I finished, sat down on the bench.

"What's wrong?" I asked, sitting down beside him.

"I-I just feel like I'm replacing Pidgey..." Exton stammered out. I stared at him, not really knowing what to say in this situation.

"You're not." I said firmly.

"How would you know?" He said bitterly in my direction.

"You're not that kind of person. I've known you for years now. I know that you wouldn't do that." I said, a bit of steel leaking into my voice.

"How do you know for sure? I could be that kind of person." Exton countered.

"Well, I guess that you'll just have to believe that you're not." I said, before offering my hand to him. "Let's go get Matthias, and leave quickly." Exton sniffled a bit, before taking my hand, and letting me pull him up. Both of us then walked to the Communicator room.

When we got onto Route 3, I turned to my two friends.

"Now that we've gotten our gym battle, let's have a Battle Royale!" I proposed.

"That actually sounds like fun, compared to the sort of things you usually come up with." Exton snarked back, before standing up.

"Yeah! Let's do this!" Matthias said, before jumping up.

We all moved back a bit, to create a circular arena for our battle.

"GO!" We all shouted at the same time, and threw our Pokéballs forward. Exton let out his new Swablu, Matthias his Dartrix, and I my Litten. They all faced each other, growling to try to create fear.

"Melody, Astonish on Dartrix!" Exton yelled, his Swablu flying forward, cloaked in a weak ghostly aura, towards Dartrix.

"Dartrix, dodge and Leaf Storm!" Matthias yelled. His Dartrix leapt forward, in the process summoning a tornado of leaves that moved slowly outwards, surely to hit both of us. His Dartrix stayed in the eye of the storm, the ferocious winds at his disposal whirling around him. I had an idea on how to avoid the tornado.

"Litten, use Flame Shield, but in a ball around you!" I yelled, the most of my voice getting drowned out by the wind. However, Litten's sensitive hearing heard me, and her ears perked up, before yowling and creating a ball of fire around her. The winds hit Swablu first, pummelling her body with sharp leaves, leaving cuts on her. However, when the leaves reached Litten, they simply burned up, and she was safe, for now.

"Now Crunch!" I shouted. Dartrix, dropping to the floor and panting, exhausted from the attempt, was too tired to move, and Litten nailed him easily with a Crunch, fainting him. Suddenly, Litten's body started to glow and morph.

"Another evolution?" I gasped, blinking my eyes from the extreme light. When the bright light died down, Litten had turned into a larger form of herself, with a bell on her neck, and yowled loudly, releasing a flare of fire.

"Finally, a Torracat!" I cheered, Torracat meowing cheerfully. I scanned her again, and it looked like she learned a new move, Double Kick.

"Melody, up again!" Exton commanded. Swablu got off the ground and flew into the air.

"Torracat, Fire Tide!" I yelled. Torracat summoned two waves of flames, radiating around it.

"Sing!" Exton commanded. Melody opened her mouth, and waves of light echoed every time she sang a note. Torracat's eyes slowly drooped, and she fell over, clearly asleep.

"Oh no! Torracat, you've gotta get up!" I shouted, concerned. Torracat's legs kicked out a bit, but other than that showed no sign that she had heard me.

"Peck until she wakes up!" Exton commanded. Melody flew down and started pummelling Torracat's body with pecks. After a while, Torracat stirred, and woke up, barely standing. Melody then flew back up.

"Fire Jet on Melody!" I yelled, worried. Torracat summoned two small flame jets underneath Melody, but she easily dodged.

"Disarming Voice!" Exton commanded. Melody then opened her mouth away, and instead of white waves, pink waves of light pulsed out, hitting Torracat and fainting her. I sighed, and returned her, a jolt of cold doubt jolting through my body, starting a cold flame at the back of my mind. I forced a smile on my face, with gritted teeth.

"Well, guess I won." Exton said happily, wit his and outstretched. "Pay up, y'all."

Both Matthias and I grumbled and scrambled for some money, handing it to Exton.

"Thank you!" He chirped.

"I think we should stop for a rest." I said, and both of them nodded.

As we unpacked, I commented. "You know, we haven't nicknamed our Pokémon yet."

"You're right, for once." Exton said.

"Shut up." Matthias grumbled, still sore for losing his second battle. "I'm nicknaming my Rowlet Pharah, and my Eevee..."

"I think we should wait until they evolve." I commented.

"Perhaps, but maybe they should choose their evolutions first." Matthias countered.

"Fine." I said. I sat down and pulled up the Pokédex entries for all of the Eeveelutions. While I was doing that, Matthias sent out his Eevee as well as mine. They both cuddled up to me, and I pulled up the images of them.

"Now, can you two choose which one you like most?" I said to the two. Matthias' Eevee clicked the quickest, clicking on the spiky electric rabbit, Jolteon, and my Eevee clicked second, on the smooth mermaid cat, Vaporeon.

"Right, so I'm naming you Haze, and Torracat Inferna." I said, typing my options into the information page on my Xtransciever for my Pokémon.

"I'm naming her Voltaire." Matthias said, and I typed her new name in.

The break soon ended, and we headed to the Mount Moon Pokémon Centre.


	9. Chapter 9

As we hiked through the rocky landscape of the final part of Route 3, we saw a familiar red and white building ahead of us, signifying a rest stop, as well as the entrance to Mount Moon, but we all know the former is the more important one.

"Air. Conditioning." I gasp, as I drop to the floor, and exaggerate a crawling motion towards the Pokémon Centre.

"Come on, you big idiot. Let's go." Matthias heaved as he grabbed my arm and dragged me up. After a few more minutes of walking, we made it to the Pokémon Centre.

"LIFE." I hissed, as the cool air from the Pokémon Centre hit me in the face. It was a hot day today, and trekking through a Route wasn't the most fun way to spend it. We made our way to the counter, where Nurse Joy was smiling cheerfully, and took the Pokéballs off of our belt, plopping them onto the tray to get them healed. Nurse Joy quickly slotted out Pokéballs into the healing machine, and turned back to us, the same smile plastered on her face.

"Now, do you need anything else?" She asked.

"Ah, yes. May we please have a map of Mount Moon?" Exton requested politely. Nurse Joy's smile drooped for a split second, before she answered.

"I'm sorry, but the cave has been blocked off. However, you're welcome to join the trainers in the cafeteria for a free lunch." She informed us.

"Alright. Thank you." Exton said, before we headed to the cafeteria. As we picked up our lunch and found our seats, we started a hushed conversation about what to do next.

"So, how do we get to Cerulean City now?" I asked, confused about how we would be able to continue our journey.

"Well, we just have to beat those Team Rocket members." Exton answered. Matthias and I shared a confused glance.

"What... are you talking about?" I asked him.

"Isn't it obvious?" Exton rolled his eyes. "Nurse Joy wouldn't even give us a reason that we wouldn't be able to cross the mountain, and the League in past instances has allowed another form of travel because of sanctioned excavation or remodelling, so it wouldn't make sense for them in this instance not to. Also, you can see out of that window, in the small pool of water, the reflection of two Rocket uniforms." Exton listed, then pointed out of the window to out left with his fork. To our amazement, he was actually correct.

"Um, okay." I said, flustered. "But how are we going to go against a whole organisation on our own? We're beginners with one badge, as well as being kids."

"Why don't we ask the trainers around here if they would want to help us?" Matthias proposed.

"That... actually isn't a bad idea." Exton blinked in shock, before he shook his head. "Let's start with the group over there." All three of us got up, and moved to another table, with four people.

"May we sit here?" Matthias said nicely. The only girl at the table looked up at him and blushed, while me and Exton giggled at him.

"Sure." A boy said. We three set our trays down, and sat down. The girl who blushed had a light tan, with dark brown hair, and hazel eyes, with her hair let down. She wore a pink, white, and black striped T-shirt, with some blue jeans. One boy had really short blond hair, and was really pale, with blue eyes. He was wearing a horrific Alolan white T-Shirt with blue pineapples on it, and brown cargo shorts. Another boy was extremely short, with a dark tan and short cropped black hair. He wore a T-Shirt with an Absol design on it, and some camp shorts. The final boy was the tallest of the group. He had hair reminiscent of some pop idols on TV, like TBS.

"Hi. I'm Alvin, and this is Exton and Matthias." I introduced ourselves, gesturing towards Exton and Matthias respectively.

"Nice ta meet'cha." The girl said. "I'm Germaine, this is Thomas, Dylan, and Ethan." She gestured towards horrific shirt boy first, then short boy, and then tall boy.

"Are you four also trying to get through Mount Moon?" Matthias asked.

"Yes. Trying to get to Cerulean for a badge." Dylan said simply.

"Alright. Did you know that some Team Rocket members are blocking the entrance?" Exton snuck into the conversation.

"Really? We didn't know that." Thomas said, before looking at each of his companions to confirm that they didn't either.

"Yeah. We need to get through Mount Moon too, so we were wondering if you would want to join us to get through Team Rocket." I said.

"Why do you need us, though?" Thomas frowned.

"We just think that we could do with some more help." Matthias said.

"Yeah, I think we're going to have to-" Thomas started to decline, before being interrupted by a blushing Germaine.

"Yeah, sure." She said, sneaking a glance at Matthias. I tried to hold in my laughs.

"What Pokémon do you guys have?" I asked them.

"I have a Murkrow and Houndour. Germaine has an Oddish and Ivysaur, Thomas has a Dratini and-" Dylan listed, not really caring what was going on.

"Woah, he has a Dratini? How did he get that?" Exton asked in shock.

"A Pokémon Adoption Centre-" Thomas said proudly.

"Don't interrupt me again. And Ethan has a disobedient Riolu." Dylan finished.

"Dassa lot of rare Pokémon!" Matthias whistled.

"Yeah. yeah, whatever." Dylan waved the question away

"I think we might have to split into teams." Matthias said, a bit frantically, seeing Germaine moving a bit closer to him. "How about Exton, I and Ethan go together?"

I looked at him, with a devious look in my eye. "Nah. I see you and Germaine are getting a bit close, so how about you two, Exton, and Thomas go together, and Ethan, Dylan and I will go together?"

Exton smirked as well. "Yeah, that sounds greaaat to me! Come on." He said, standing up and dragging the three by their wrists out.

"I guess it's us left." I commented, before dragging the two up and out, as Exton did.

"NOOOO! MY FOOOOD!" Ethan cried, stretching out a hand towards the food, until it was no longer in sight.

We approached the entrance, seeing that the guards were already knocked out by Matthias and company. I grinned, stepping over their unconscious bodies, motioning for them to do the same. Ethan carefully stepped over one, while Dylan not-so-carefully trod on the guard, proceeding to kick him once, then proceeding forward.

"Well, that was unnecessary." I frowned at Dylan, and he only shrugged.

"He's scum." He said, stepping into the cave. Me and Ethan hesitantly followed suit. Once we got into the cave, we saw two ladders, one with faint footsteps, and one with relatively new ones.

"This way." I said, walking towards, the one with old tracks, them following behind me.


	10. Chapter 10

**Note: Edited on 29/09/2019**

We climbed down the ladder one by one, all we could hear was the sound of our own movements, and breaths. The silence was odd, discomforting, and suspicious. Why would the Rockets be guarding a mountain that nothing was happening in?

My feet reached the solid ground, thudding, before I heard Dylan, Ethan, and Exton's feet reaching the ground. I quickly realised my mistake, whirling around, Pokéball in hand, and calling out Inferna. However, the other person released a Grimer before me.

"Grimer, Sludge!" It yelled, the Grimer spitting out a pile of sludge towards me. Luckily, Inferna appeared and blocked the attack quickly.

"Inferna, Heat Barrier!" I yelled, the Heat Wave flaring up in between the mystery person and Dylan, Ethan, and I. I made a motion at them which meant to tell them to get to me. They walked in my direction quickly, and I recalled Inferna, before telling them to hide behing the wall. As the wall of heat dissipated, I clamoured behind the wall as well.

The person sighed and returned her Pokémon, taking out a phone, and dialling someone.

"Yeah, Boss? Listen, there are some kids in the caves... One had a Torracat... Okay, bye." She said, before walking away to patrol again.

"Whew, that was close." I sighed in relief a few seconds after she left.

"That was a bit suspicious, though, she didn't try to pursue us." Dylan commented.

"Maybe she was ordered to leave us alone." Ethan suggested. A few seconds of silence elapsed.

"How about we keep at least one of our Pokémon out from now on?" I suggested.

"Yeah, let's do that if we want ourselves to be aggressively Force Palmed by a disobedient Riolu." Dylan said, giving a side glance at Ethan.

"Will you get off my case for that?" Ethan said, annoyed.

"Oh yeah, I remember, you said something about a disobedient Riolu?" I asked.

"Ethan got a Riolu from his dead Granddad's Lucario, but it doesn't respect him. Not like I see any reason for him to." Dylan snarked.

"Okay, can you stop? I don't see how you two are even friends." I said, my emotions a mix between anger and annoyance.

"Let's just call out our Pokémon." Dylan grunted, and sent out his Murkrow, who perched on his shoulder. I sent out Haze, who made himself comfortable on my head. Ethan kept his Pokéball in his pocket, sighing. I felt sorry for him, lending him Inferna.

"Here, take my Torracat." I said softly, pressing Inferna's Pokéball into his hand.

"Thank you." He said gratefully, sending out Inferna, who cocked her head to the side, surprised by who called her out.

"Alright, Inferna. I'm just going to need you to protect Ethan until we get out of the cave." I said to Inferna, who nodded in understanding.

"Let's go." I said, motioning again for us to move forward, towards the next ladder. I disappeared down the ladder.

"Hmmm." A man in a black suit mused pensively, behind our three. "This might be a bit harder than I thought..."

 **Meanwhile:**

In the Cerulean Gym, a light brown haired girl watched as her Greninja moved back and forth, side to side, avoiding the various shots her Starmie shot out at a rapid pace, similar to those of a machine gun. At the pace her Greninja was moving, it seemed as if it was teleporting around.

"You know, you really don't need to train this hard, Eri." A woman by the door commented. She wore a white blouse, and blue jean shorts. She also had bright orange hair, kept in a ponytail by a blue hairband.

"I really do, _mother._ If I want to have the power to face him, I have to do this." The girl said through gritted teeth, concentrating more on the battle in front of her.

"Greninja, Shadow Clone!" She shouted. The Greninja stopped for merely a second, getting hit by two water bullets, before splitting into three. They all then quickly leaped away, the Starmie noticing this, and starting to shift into Rapid Spin, while shooting out the bullets from its tips. The three Greninja dodged almost every bullet, but noticeably being slower than before.

"Greninja, Water Shuriken!" She commanded. The three Greninja formed three shurikens each, before launching them at Starmie. The shurikens cut through the water bullets like hot butter, hitting the Starmie, and creating bruises wherever they hit.

"Greninja, Dark Pulse!" She yelled. The three Greninja made dark Shurikens instead of water ones, and launched them at the Starmie again, fainting it.

"Enough. Starmie, Psychic." The woman sighed. A Starmie camouflaged on the floor behind Greninja appeared, quickly grabbing Greninja with a pink psychic energy, before launching it at the wall. The Greninja, stunned in surprise, hit the wall and fainted.

"Wha-wha-how?" The girl gaped in surprise.

"Camouflage, Miracle Eye, and Substitute." The woman explained. "Now Eri, can you please go have lunch with your stepfather?"

"Yes, mother." The girl sighed, returning her Greninja before heading out the door.

After the girl left, the woman turned in her direction. "They grow up too fast." She murmured, before following her.

 **In Mount Moon:**

I descended to the bottom of the second ladder, to find... nothing.

"You would really think that these guys would be more obvious with their criminal acts." I commented, Haze leaping of my shoulder.

"Well, it isn't like they would jump out and shout some kind of stupid motto, making it immediately clear to everyone, even the police, their name and criminal deeds, and also taking up enough time for them to be detained and arrested." Dylan said.

"That was _really_ specific..." Ethan said. "Also, it is kinda obvious. There's a large hole in the wall right there." He said, pointing behind us.

"Um... I don't see any other exits, so I guess we should go this way." I said, already walking towards the hole.

"This seems incredible irresponsible." Dylan commented in a monotone voice.

"Well, that's exactly what I am. LET'SGONOW!" I commanded, taking both of them by the wrists again, and running towards the hole, the Pokémon following behind us, sprinting. Once I got into the hole, I ran down before getting punched in the arm.

"CAN YOU PLEASE STOP RUNNING!" Dylan yelled angrily, the first time I had seen any kind of emotion from him. He then quickly calmed down, before punching me again.

"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing my arm, where a bruise was already starting to form. "Jeez, okay..." I said, before trailing off now that I knew I had no idea where we were. The entire hole was dark, and smelled of old mildew. The room was oddly cold, colder than the previous cave.

"Great. Now we have no idea where we are, and..." Dylan checked his phone. "No service. We can't even call anyone for help!"

"Inferna, Fire Fang." I commanded, ignoring Dylan. Inferna instantly lit her two fangs on fire, illuminating a tiny spot in the room. "See? Now we can find our way out of her-" I said, turning back, before smacking into a wall. I hit a light switch face-first, illuminating the entire room, before staggering back in pain.

"Ow..." I mumbled, still delirious from the stupidly small amount of pain.

"...what...is this place?" Ethan said quietly, in shock. There was an entire laboratory inside of the small space, with large cylindrical tubes containing some sort of bubbling fluid. Some of them had shattered glass, empty. Others were still intact, with some kind of organism inside of it. They were barely recognisable as Pokémon, their bodies fused together with other random parts of other Pokémon. Most of them were common ones, such as Pidgey, Rattata, Meowth and Geodude. Their skin or feathers looked as if they were bubbling, with bony appendages protruding from different sections of their bodies. I could make out a Charmander tail poking out of a Pidgey's throat, a Nidorino horn coming out of a Geodude's hands, and a single Noctowl wing coming from the back of a small Rattata. Laptops and paper were strewn all over the room. It looked a mess, with moss climbing up the walls. There were human bodies, or what I presumed were human bodies, littering the floor, their bodies skeletal, starved and mangled. There were bloody footprints coming from the cylinders with shattered glass. I didn't recognise the footprints.

"This place shouldn't exist. This is Mt. Moon, for god's sake. Why would anyone build a laboratory here? And how did no one find this before us? So many Trainers pass through this mountain, it's impossible that we were the first ones to find it!" I sort of rambled out. What...are these?" I asked, scared and bewildered. Both of my companions looked over to me with horrified looks on their faces.

"We don't know either! Why would we know?" Dylan responded, in shock, an expression that looked unusual on his face. I guess that even the most emotionless person could be surprised by a room full of mutated abominations.

I immediately pulled my phone out of my pocket to alert the Pokémon league about this, Inferna behind me. Unfortunately, she was just as shocked as we were, forgetting to relinquish her hold in the fire-type energy surrounding her teeth. I took a step backwards, and tripped over her, making her fall to the ground. The fire-type energy dissipated, but not quickly enough. An tiny ember flew onto a liquid spill, setting it ablaze. The fire quickly spread, ravaging the laboratory. I gazed, wide-eyed, at the fire, before quickly returning Inferna to her Pokéball.

"GET OUT! GET OUT NOW!" I quickly screamed at them. We rushed out of the laboratory, all of the evidence inside being quickly wiped out as the fire destroyed every single piece of evidence that anything had ever gone wrong here. We stared back at the giant blaze. It was all my fault. Maybe if I hadn't taken that step backwards, it could have been stopped earlier. All of it. But no. And so my journey would take a... new path.

"Well, you found our old lab, did'ya? Guess I'll have to take care of y'all." A playful voice sounded out from behind us. I whirled around to face a man with cyan hair and blue eyes, and a sharp jawline. He looked as if he was around forty to fifty years old, and he wore a black hat, with a black jacket and long white gloves, with a red band around the ends of the gloves. He had a white belt with six Pokéballs, and black pants, and long boots with the same design as his gloves. A white earpiece was stuck in his right ear. He was leaning on the wall casually, hand on his hat, and a confident smirk on his face. The most important thing though, was the big red R on his shirt.

"Nice to meet'cha. Name's Proton." He drawled. He then stood up, hand on his Pokéballs. "And sorry 'bout this." He took a Pokéball off of his waist, and released the Pokémon inside.


	11. Chapter 11

A woman with orange hair walked into her dining room to find her daughter polishing off several helpings of a fried Magikarp cutlet and Topo Berry curry. A faint smile appeared on her face before rapping on the doorframe lightly to get Eri's attention.

"Eri, dear, you got an alert from a Trainer in Mount Moon. You've got to get there now." She said. Eri instantly turned to her mother, with a mouthful of Magikarp cutlet, and nodded. She stood up quickly and grabbed her belt full of Pokéballs from a hook on the wall.

"See ya, Mom." Eri said with a cheeky grin.

"Bye, Eri. I'll save some more Magikarp for you when you get back." The woman nodded, and started tidying up the table. Eri put on her coat, with the badge symbol of the Cerulean City Gym stitched onto it, and fastened the belt around her waist. She sent out her Slowbro, Senta, who looked at her with a dopey grin on its face.

"Senta, Teleport." Eri commanded. She disappeared in an instant.

 **In Mount Moon:**

In a flash of white light, a sleek white Persian appeared, slinking around, its red eyes glinting dangerously.

"Persian, Fake Out on the kids." Proton commanded, pointing at us. With a slight movement, the Persian leapt towards us with lightning fast movement. Not wanting them to get hurt, I shielded them and received a sharp pain in my side. I looked down. My shirt had three tears it in, presumably from the Persian's claws, and I had thee deep cuts into my side. Blood was slowly pooling out of the wound, staining my shirt. My eyes widened as I realised how much danger we were in right now.

"Y'all have seen too much now. Gotta get rid of you." Proton shrugged as Persian reappeared back at his side, like it had teleported. It curled its tail around its legs and smirked mockingly at us. "Persian, Slash." He commanded. The Persian leapt at us yet again, but this time I was ready.

"Inferna, Flame Kick from below! Haze, jump and Close Combat from above!" I said with a wince, releasing Haze from his Pokéball. Instantly, both of them launched into action, Inferna leaping at Persian from below and Haze from above.

"Persian, Screech Gem." Proton said dismissively yelled. I gritted my teeth, both from the pain and from anger. As Inferna jumped below Persian, and launched a flaming kick up at her, and Haze landed from above, Persian summoned several gems from the floor below, ripping the ground apart. She then let out an ear splitting screech, which shattered the various gems that were just summoned, and the force of the sound blew Haze away from her and Inferna's fire was extinguished as she hit the floor, rolling around in pain, trying to cover her sensitive ears. Persian then used the various shards of gems to fly towards Haze, and which embedded themselves in his fur. Inferna, forgotten below, used the opportunity to launch two flaming kicks at Persian. However, Persian didn't even budge, and it seemed like Inferna's attack had done absolutely nothing.

"What?" I gasped. Shit. How were we going to deal with this. Suddenly, footsteps. Matthias and the rest of the gang came funning from a corridor.

"What's wrong?" He asked, before seeing Proton in front of us.

"Get over here!" I hissed at him.

"Murkrow, Sky Attack! Houndour, Bite!" Dylan commanded, releasing his Absol too. Proton looked surprised, momentarily forgetting that they were there, blinking. His Murkrow glowed with a bright blue light, charging up, as Houndour used his teeth to bite Persian from below, biting at her stomach. However, Persian moved out of the way, and whacked Houndour with its tail, hard. Houndour slammed into the ground, and howled in pain. Murkrow finished charging, and sped high up into the air, and then flew at supersonic speeds towards Persian. Persian simply moved out of the way and slammed a paw into Murkrow though, and Murkrow then slammed into Houndour below, knocking Murkrow out. Dylan frowned, and returned Murkrow.

"Everyone, get all your Pokémon out!" I yell. There was a giant flash of red light as everyone released their Pokémon.

"Inferna, Mass Heat Barrier! Haze, Close Combat!" I shouted. Inferna then created a large circle of flame around Persian, trying to trap it, but Persian jumped above the flames, towards Inferna. However, as Persian dived towards Inferna, Haze jumped towards and above Persian, altering my command and flailing his limbs all over the place, striking the cat all over its body, and it landed back on the ground. This time, Persian did seem to be a bit hurt. Finally, we were getting somewhere.

"Shit, this is going to take more effort than expected." Proton sighed.

"Voltaire, Double Impact! Dexter, Leaf Storm surround!" Matthias yelled, finally getting into the fight. Dexter, the newly named Dartrix, summoned a flurry of sharp leaves, and commanded a gale of light purple wind to sweep the leaves up, sending them directly towards Persian. Voltaire jumped off Matthias' arm again, and leapt at the Persian, hitting it twice consecutively with white-energy boosted kicks.

"Persian, Gunk Shot." Proton said. His Persian then regurgitated a large spray of purple acid, and launched it towards our Pokémon, and us. I leapt to the ground as a spray of acid flew over my head. As it hit the floor, it dissolved a large hole in the floor. Wow, that was some strong acid. I quickly recalled my Pokémon, thanking my stars that the attack had been slightly slower. A second faster, and I wouldn't be alive. The spray of acid dissolved the leaves that Matthias was trying to get Persian with. Unluckily, the spray of acid hit some of our Pokémon, eating through their fur and skin. The first one to get hit was Dylan's Houndour, who got quickly recalled once the acid burned through his bone-like structures on his body. The second one to get hit was Voltaire, which luckily used Quick Attack to leap back a bit further, otherwise she would have gotten drenched in the acid, but her tail got caught slightly, and the acid burned easily through her thick fur like it wasn't there in the first place. Voltaire cried out in pain as a slight bit of acid touched the flesh of her tail, and Matthias recalled her.

Ethan had turned his back, trying to call for help, and didn't notice what was coming for him. A spurt of purple acid launched towards him as he turned back around, and looked up at his certain demise. I tried to alert him, but could only watch in horror as it sprayed towards him.

Suddenly, Riolu leaped in front of him, and started glowing white. His figure grew immensely, and after a few seconds, a Lucario now stood in front of him. Riolu had evolved. Lucario then pushed Ethan out of the way quickly, and the Sludge Bomb fell on him. The acid dripped off Lucario slowly, and steam arose from Lucario, but no major damage was done. Ethan dropped to the ground in shock, and crawled backwards a bit.

"...Riolu...?" Ethan slowly said. Lucario winked slightly at him, and started charging up a large blue pulsing orb of energy. I noticed that even though it was meant to be totally ineffective against a Steel-Type, the acid spray did start slowly dulling the spike on Lucario's chest, and ating through it. How the fuck did he manage that?

"Aura Sphere..." I said. Lucario then released the Aura Sphere by spreading his hands outwards, and shot it towards Persian. It flew through the spray of acid and hit Persian, making it wince slightly in pain. My hopes fell. If a Lucario's Aura Sphere caused that much damage to it, we had no hope in hell of defeating that beast of a Persian.

Suddenly, a feminine voice echoed from a distance away from us. "Thanks for alerting me. I'll take it from here." She said as she winked at us. "You're all extremely talented for beginner Trainers. Most people wouldn't be able to fend off Proton for this long." She said as she strode towards us. "Thanks though." The woman said. She had light brown tousled hair, and it was cut short. She had viridian coloured eyes, and she wore a light yellow blouse with short blue jeans. She sent out a dark blue frog-like Pokémon with its tongue as a scarf.

"Ugh, a Gym Leader. This is going to take a while." Proton groaned. He tapped a Pokéball, recalling Persian in a flash of red energy. He winked at us. "You kids managed ta hurt my Persian. I'm gonna keep an eye on you." He turned around.

"Greninja, Water Shuriken then Tongue Wrap!" She said urgently to her Greninja. Greninja quickly launched blurs of water at the figure of Proton, moving so quickly that we didn't even see it react. The Shurikens hit a cloud of smoke that emerged from behind Proton. Greninja then unfurled its tongue scarf and launched it into the cloud. However, it came out the other side with absolutely nothing. As the smokescreen cleared, we could see that the Rocket Admin Proton had disappeared completely.

"Shit. Better luck next time, I guess. I'll get him someday." The woman said softly to herself. I then turned to her, narrowing my eyes.

"Who are you?" I asked suspiciously.

"I'm Eris Waterflower, the Cerulean City Gym Leader." She said to me. "Are you the one who sent out that distress signal?" I shook my head. "Well, it's damn sure that if I had gotten here slightly later, you would've been dead. You're lucky." Ethan cleared his throat. "Actually, I sent out the signal." She looked at him with an approving gaze and Ethan blushed. She walked off, into the cave. "Come challenge me later." Her Greninja nodded to us and disappeared, similar to the Persian.

"Man, I hope we don't have to _fight_ that thing." I breathed out.


	12. Chapter 12

We took a small break right outside of Mount Moon. The sun was shining brightly, and it seemed too peaceful. What a contrast to what we had just been through. Our small group sat together, mostly tired from the intensity of what just happened, and still sort of in shock at how close to death we had just come. A silence settled over the area, the only noises being the cries of wild Pokémon. After a while, the others left, leaving just Matthias, Exton and I.

"So, I can say that I really didn't expect to almost die when I've just started my Pokémon journey." Matthias broke the silence with a joke. Of course. How like him it was. I shot a glare at him.

"Is that all you have to say about what just happened?" I mildly started going off on Matthias, irrationally angry. "Thanks for _lightening the mood."_

Exton then turned onto me. "Well, what is there to say about what happened? I mean, he's just trying to get everyone's spirits up. Why are you so angry in the first place?"

I looked at him as if he was stupid. "Are you dumb? We almost got killed by a high-ranking member of a crime syndicate, who just said that he would pretty much COME AFTER US AGAIN, and who almost KILLED US, and you're wondering why I'm angry? He escaped, dammit! We're just twelve years old-" I started ranting.

"Thirteen, actually." Matthias corrected me. I looked at him confusedly. "What?"

"Uh, well, it's my birthday today. We kind of spent a day in Mount Moon already, so..." Matthias informed me.

"What a nice start to a birthday, to almost be murdered." Exton commented. I then glared at him.

"Why didn't you tell us earlier?" My anger lightened by a shade.

"Well, we were kinda in the middle of something..." He pointed out. I mean, he was right. But he could totally still have told us.

"We need to do something today!" I announced cheerfully, grabbing him by the arm and dragging him up. "Let's get to the Pokémon Centre now!"

"Damn, that was a quick mood swing." Exton commented under his breath.

We trekked through Route 4 as fast as we could. I essentially dragged Matthias through Route 4 while Exton walked by my side.

"Ow, ow, ow! Stop dragging me, I can walk by myself!" Matthias whined as he pulled away from my grasp. "Anyways, I don't want to get off this Route just yet. We can apparently find Psyduck here, and I really need a water-type. Mankey are also on this Route, so you could get that to cover your glaring weakness to Rock-types." Shit. He did make a good point, and _I guess_ since it was also his birthday we could do what he wanted to do.

"Fine. But know that I won't be happy about this." I warned him. We set off on the Route in search of Psyduck and Mankey.

Mankey was the easiest one for me to find. As we were wandering through the Route, I suddenly got hit on the back of my head.

"Ow!" I yelped, before rubbing the back of my head. It felt... sticky and slimy. I pulled my hand off of my head and looked at it with an expression of disgust. A clear liquid was spread on my head. Chittering laughter then came from behind me. I turned around angrily, to find a Mankey pointing and laughing at me, before spitting at me yet again. I closed my eyes as it landed straight on my face. Snarling, I pulled a Pokéball off of my waist before simply throwing it at the cheeky monkey. It got sucked inside in a flash of red light, and the Pokéball wobbled three times before stopping. Wow, didn't even need to battle. I used a sleeve to wipe the saliva off of my face, before heading off to meet back with the others.

I found Matthias and Exton sitting side by side at the small river that ran into Cerulean City. "Any luck?" I asked them, before sitting down beside them.

"Nothing but Magikarp and Goldeen." Exton said to me. "I assume that you got your Mankey?"

"Yep. And it's a cheeky bastard. Started spitting at me." I told them with a slightly annoyed expression.

"'It'?" Have you not checked it yet?" Exton asked me. I shook my head. "Haven't had the time." I slotted the Pokéball into my Xtransciever, scanning its contents. It told me that my Mankey was a female, with Focus Energy, Taunt, Karate Chop and Leer... as well as being severely underleveled. No wonder I caught it without battling. I definitely had to train it up before it would be ready to battle. My Xtransciever then prompted me for a nickname. My eyes lit up as I found the perfect one. I then welcomed Harley the Mankey to my team. A loud splash broke my attention. I turned my head around to find Matthias missing.

"Did he- did he just jump in the river." I asked, bewildered.

"Yep. Spotted a Psyduck." Exton said, staring into blank space. Matthias emerged from the water, completely wet, but with a shit-eating grin on his face and a Pokéball in his hand.

"Checkmate, motherfucker." He said, before climbing up onto the riverbank, Pokéball clutched firmly in his hand. With a press of the button, the Psyduck inside was released.

"Psy-aye?" It said confusedly, before clutching its head in pain. "PSY!" Psyduck's eyes started glowing purple as it channelled its psychic powers through its headache. Matthias simply took out a row of white tablets, before putting one in the Psyduck's bill. The purple glow started fading as it lost its headache. We stared at him.

"What? Painkillers work!" Matthias defended himself, before recalling Psyduck. "Imma call him Donald."

"Wow. Clever." I deadpanned.

"Shut up." Matthias said, then shivered. "Is it just me, or is it getting a bit cold."

"Let's get to the Centre and get you dried." Exton said, standing up. With our new captures in hand, we made our way to the Pokémon Centre. When we entered Cerulean City, no-one batted an eye at the drenched boy. Huh. Guess it's quite a common thing to fall into the river, then. The Pokémon Centre was quite full, with Trainers waiting on the couches for their Pokémon to get healed. We handed our Pokéballs over to Nurse Joy, as usual, then got instructions to our room. With that, Matthias got a change of clothes, and also dry.

"Now that you're dry, let's go down to the canteen and ask for a cake. After all, you can't have a birthday without cake!" I said cheerfully.

"But wh-" Exton started, before I slammed the door behind me and started taking off.

"For fuck's sake-" Matthias said before sprinting after me again. Exton shrugged and also ran after him. This seemed to be a recurring theme of running in our Pokémon journey.

When I reached the lobby, I started running towards the canteen, before getting tackled around the waist.

"OOF-" I let out a breath of air as I feel onto the floor. As I opened my eyes, I saw the cherubic little face of my younger brother, Aiden, staring back at me. Yes, I know. 'A' names. My parents certainly were extremely creative. Speaking of my parents...

"Aiden! Why are you in Cerulean City?" I asked my little brother as I got off of the floor.

"Mom and Dad said we should take a holiday!" Aiden said cheerfully. "Wow! I can't believe you're a Pokémon Trainer! I can't wait to get my first Pokémon!" He looked at me enthusiastically.

"I'm sure it'll be something as cool as mine, buddy!" I said to him, before looking around warily. "Speaking of that, do you know where Mom and Dad are?" My voice quietened slightly.

"Oh, they were chasing me! I think..." Aiden slightly pouted. "But nevermind! I want to see your Pokémon!"

"I'm sorry, but not right now, I have to find-" I tried to use an excuse, walking backwards apologetically, before bumping into someone.

"Oh, I'm so-" I looked around. Shit. Shit. Shit. Why did this have to happen. I swallowed a gulp of saliva, and sighed. "Mom. Dad. How nice to see you here!"

"Alvin." My father looked at me disappointedly. "I'd have thought you would be much further than you are now! It's been two weeks already, why haven't you already started training for Vermilion Gym? The first two are always the easiest to start with! The ones after get much more difficult." I looked down. This is why I didn't want to see them.

"Well, he's never exactly been the quickest of people, has he?" My mom butted in. Not one, but two of them. I could probably deal with one of them, but definitely not two. My throat started constricting. Where were they? "Remember when we had him tested for a learning deficiency when he was younger?"

"I hoped that we didn't get you all of those extra lessons for nothing! Remember, create a balanced team, not a specialised one. Balanced ones are so much harder to take down, and you have less trouble with type disadvantages too." My dad started lecturing. God, I hated that.

"Well, mom and dad, I really have to get going, so-" I started to say.

"Going so soon? Why don't we sit down and have a chat first?" My mom asked me.

"I've really got this urgent thing to do, so tha-" I walked backwards, hoping to escape again.

"Oh, yes! Where is Exton? I always said that he would be a good influence on you. You could learn so much from his battling style. Top of the year!" She remarked. Why was I having slight trouble breathing again.

"I-I was actually going to mee-" I said, before getting cut off again.

"That's great! Why don't we go and see them too?" My dad exclaimed. I couldn't deal with this. Not now. I was doing so well, too.

"I-I-I-" I then proceeded to run in the opposite direction. Fuck. Not my greatest escape attempt, but it worked. On the way back, I saw Exton and Matthias running too.

"Finally, we caught up to him." Exton said. Matthias noticed my slightly sad expression.

"What's wrong?" He asked concernedly. I shook my head, and put on a smile.

"Nothing much. Let's go get your cake!" I faked enthusiasm, and walked to the canteen with them. Matthias grabbed my hand.

"Look, I don't want a cake!" He exclaimed. "Why are you doing this? Why do you care so much about this being okay? You made a complete 180 back then after Mount Moon!"

"BECAUSE I NEVER HAD A NICE ONE, ALRIGHT?" I yelled loudly. The stress had really gotten to me, and I was too tired to argue. The others were kind of shocked at my outburst. "Nevermind. It doesn't really matter. That's fine. Let's go do something else, then." I said again, putting on a fake smile.

"If it really matters to you, then that's what we'll do. It doesn't really matter what we do, as long as we do it together." Matthias offered. A second passed. Then we all laughed loudly.

"That's such cheesy bullshit!" I got out amidst the laughter. After a moment, I stopped, and recomposed myself. "Thanks, Matthias."

"No prob. Let's just go back to the room, alright then?" He asked me. I nodded, and we went back to our room.


	13. Chapter 13

The next morning, the day was amazing. The sun shone brightly in the sky, the Pidgey were tweeting, and I was frantically shoving things into my bag, as well as yelling at Exton and Matthias.

"COME ON GUYS! LET'S GO!" I yelled as I slung my bag onto my back. I was so excited. Matthias frantically scrubbed his teeth with his toothbrush while Exton grabbed three water bottles and three cereal bars off the nightstand. With unfounded exasperation, I walked up to Matthias and shook him.

"LET'S GOOO!" I whined to him. Matthias took the toothbrush out of his mouth and scowled at me.

"Fine!" He said, and dumped the toothbrush into a spare cup in the bathroom. "Let's go, then." He said moodily.

"Alright! Let's go see Bill!" I yelled excitedly, before running out of the door.

"He has got to stop this." Exton said, as he stared at my receding form, before starting to run away as well.

"Welp." sighed Matthias, and continued after us two.

I ran over the famous golden Nugget Bridge, with many people looking strangely at me.

"Come on come on come on!" I excitedly squealed, before running further ahead. After a few minutes of running, I finally made my way to the famous Cerulean Cape hedge maze. Immediately, I started sprinting through the simple hedge maze, avoiding eye contact with all the trainers in the maze.

"I challenge to a-" A Youngster Trainer yelled, pointing his finger at me. I dashed past him.

"Sorrynotimegottagofastbye!" I yelled back, finally making it to the end of the bridge. Matthias and Exton chased behind me.

"What's wrong with your friend?" The Youngster asked them.

"I've been trying to figure that out for years." Exton responded tiredly. Finally, I reached the edge of the cliff, seeing a lighthouse standing on the edge of the cliff, with a backyard extending until the horizon. From what I could see, Pokémon of all shapes and sizes from every known region wandered around the green pastures of the field, perched on tree branches and swam in the large ponds of the meadow. My eyes shimmered with amazement as I watched the Pokémon wander.

"I know, amazing, aren't they?" A voice said from behind me. Surprised, I flinched a bit before turning around. Behind me was an old man, I suspected around 70 years old, with a receding hairline and white wavy hair, wearing a purple shirt and brown cargo pants. He was hunched over, with a cane.

"Yeah, sir, they really are." I breathed out. The old man had a twinkle in his eye, perhaps of sympathy, perhaps of excitement.

"I understand. I'm still amazed, after living here for so long. I'm grateful for every day that I get to see them" The old man replied.

 **In a room not very far away:**

A man sat in a plush red chair, in front of many screens. Each screen showed a different scene, one of a beach, one inside a large building, and one which was... off. The man quickly sat up, nibbling his pen. His eyes had large dark bags under them, as if he hadn't slept in years. Papers were strewn on the desk and floor of the room, stained with coffee and biscuit crumbs.

"He's early this time. Well, early according to the averages across the other U-Ns, but early nonetheless. At least I expected him this time. Time to go. Computer?" The man muttered under his breath onto a small device on his left arm, before issuing a command. A beeping noise emitted, before a woman appeared suddenly next to him.

"Computer Interface Accessed." She stated calmly. "What would you like to do?"

"Make a note: Experiment U-416 commencing. Results to be acquired." The man commanded.

"Right away, sir." The woman disappeared instantly. The man got off of the chair slowly, making his way to a door behind him.

 **Back on Cerulean Cape:**

I shook my head quickly, remembering what I was here for. "Sorry, sir. I forgot what I was here for. It was nice talking to you, though!" I said cheerfully to the old man as I ran to the door of the house with the ranch, Bill Jr's house. On the horizon, I saw Matthias and Exton emerge. I waited patiently for them to arrive before I pressed the doorbell of Bill Jr's house. Exton and Matthias both panted from all the exercise they did.

"I know you're excited, but could you please slow down a bit?" Exton said to me with a slight edge. I immediately became defensive.

"Oh, I'm sorry that I'm excited for once!" I retorted, then immediately started to regret it.

"Why are you being so aggressive? Jeez, I just asked you to slow down for once." Exton said back.

"..." I went silent again. Why was I being so angry?

"You always get like this whenever someone tells you anything that you could improve on." Matthias remarked, not

I felt a rush of blood to my cheeks, be it of embarrassment, shame or anger I did not know. "...Nevermind." I whispered to myself, pressing the doorbell. The door immediately swung open, but without anybody in sight.

"Creepy." Matthias remarked, as he took the first step in. Looking at each other, me and Exton nodded, and followed behind. As all of us stepped into his house, the door behind us swung shut, leaving us in the dark. My panic started to set in.

"What's happening?" Exton asked to no-one in particular, looking around frantically. Suddenly, a light from above switched on, illuminating the entire room. The room we were in was extremely luxurious, with plushy red armchairs strewn across the room, two grand fireplaces, with paintings of Pokémon in their habitats, and a long grand table, with many chairs placed there. Everything was covered with a layer of dust, as if they had not been used in a very, very long time. I looked up. There were Starmie-themed chandeliers hanging from the ceilings, with lights on every limb. There was also a grand staircase with a long red carpet leading up to a dark corridor in the center of the room.

"...I swear that this is where he lives." I told my friends, as they looked at me.

"Well, you would be right," A man's voice came from the top of the staircase. We turned to look at the man. He had extremely spiky and poofy brown hair, spiking in various different directions. He had large bags under his eyes, almost looking like a Zigzagoon. He was wearing a white shirt, with various brown stains on it, and baggy blue jeans. "And you three are late. Hurry up." He commanded, turning back and heading through the corridor. Looking at them, I shrugged and started following the man, walking up the stairs and heading down the corridors. As I walked behind the man, I caught some of his mutterings.

"...three hours late...note one...different...alive..." He whispered to himself. I put my hand on his shoulder, getting his attention. "Yes?" He said hostilely towards me.

"Who are you? Where's Bill Jr? Where are you taking us?" I spewed out in rapid-fire succession to the man. He put a finger to my mouth.

"Shhhh." He hissed out, before turning to continue, and walking through a door. I turned to my companions.

"Why are we following this weird guy?" Matthias asked me.

"Because there's no other way out." I said definitively.

"We didn't try the do-" Exton started

"I think we should just see what he wants. After all, we still don't know where Bill Jr is. He might be in trouble." I told them, before continuing off, moving through the door that he went through.

I walked into a room filled with many screens, all showing various scenes, some of which I recognised: Saffron City Gym, the Trainer School in Viridian City, and just outside of the room we were in. The man was sat awkwardly in a blue swivel chair in front of the screens. Papers were strewn all over the place, and cups of half-finished cold coffee lay around the place. The room was bare, with nothing other than the screens, papers, coffee and chair. "What is this place?" I now demanded, creeped out. The man swirled around with a certain dramatic flair.

"Hello, Alvin. Nice to finally see you. How are you?" The man enquired. He quickly looked around, slightly confused. "Did Exton and Matthias not come in here yet? Interesting..." He commented, before scribbling something down in a notebook. I was slightly in shock

"Who are you? How do you know my name? How do you who my friends are?" I asked rapidly, confused and slightly scared. How did he know all this about me?

"Oh, I know more about you than most other people, Alvin. I know you tried to breach the firewall of my Pokédex, I know what happened to you in Mount Moon, I know what Pokémon you have on hand right now, and most importantly..." He got out of the chair and started moving towards me. "I know that you're not what you look like." He leaned in to my face, with a smirk plastered all over his face. I stumbled back a bit.

"W-what?" I spat out in shock. "What are you talking about?" The man turned back to the monitor. Exton and Matthias finally entered, deciding that they wanted to follow me after all. They saw the expression on my face, a mix of anger, confusion and fear, all mixing together to produce an indescribable feeling in my head

"Ah, finally. One minute and thirty four seconds after." He noted another thing down in his notebook.

"Are you okay?" Matthias asked me, concerned.

"No." I pushed out of my throat. The man turned around again.

"Hello, you three. Finally, I get to meet you!" The man cheerfully smiled at us. "This is the point in the story where it gets _fun_. Tell me, what do you know of triangles?"

All three of us looked oddly at him, like he'd lost his mind. Which was what I actually thought happened a long time ago. Exton cleared his throat.

"Well, triangles are shapes with three vertices and three edges. They are also the strongest shape-" He began to rant, before the man cut him off.

"Exactly! Good, good. Triangles are indeed the strongest structure in the universe, as well as being incorporated in many weapons and defence mechanisms. Of course, as it often does, art reflects nature. Take the known legendaries in the Kanto region, for example. Articuno, Zapdos and Moltres. Do you notice anything? Three Pokémon, all having advantages over another and being weak against the other, forming a triangle. Similarly, other legendaries reflect this pattern of threes. The Creation Trio of Sinnoh, The Tao Trio of Unova, the Legendary Beasts of Johto, the Weather Trio of Hoenn, the list goes on and on and on. And you will also notice that many other powerful Pokémon follow this pattern of threes. The question is, why?" He looked at us expectantly. I was still trying to process the information.

"Well..." Exton actually looked lost for words for once. His mouth hung agape, as he didn't have the answer to a question for once.

"Well, the answer is that, simply, a power triangle is a simple power amplifier, that allows for the Pokémon in the trio to be inherently drawn to events of great importance in the universe, of be the catalysts for great change. I could go into how it actually works, but the logistics of it all would terrify you to no end." The man dismissively said. Exton frowned. He never liked being treated as if he couldn't understand a situation's importance or a theorem because of his age.

"Try me." Exton said, slightly crossly.

"Well, alright," The man looked slightly in my direction. "The simple polarity generator of the dialitical intosevenicity amplifies the giaretinal force of the individual force source, boosting its inherent giai..." The words he spoke sounded like complete gibberish to me. All three of us, yes, including Exton, looked bewildered as he continued to rant about how the Power Triangle worked. He took a deep breath, before continuing on for around two more minutes, before he stopped. "Simple, right?" He looked at our confused faces, and sighed deeply. "Well, it was worth a try." He turned back to the screen.

"You three... are one of these power trios. Before you ask, yes, humans can be in power triangles too, but it is extremely, extremely rare. There is a prophecy of old that tells of three heroes whom arise to stop a great threat. From historical cross-referencing, as well as the analysis of ripples in reality, you three are at the center of this prophecy, creating large ripples in time and space around yourselves. As such, I have taken it upon myself to help you along in this." He turned back around to us, looking me straight in the eyes. An awkward silence ensued.

"...wait, you can't possibly believe him!" Exton broke the silence. He was looking, bewildered, at all of us. "Firstly, we don't even know who he is, secondly, how does he know all this, thirdly, why would we believe him?" Exton listed off.

"Well, I think I can answer your first question. Bill Jr, at your service." Bill Jr mocked a bow.

I snapped my fingers. "Ah! That's how you knew all that about me!" Matthias looked curiously at me.

"What are you talking about?" Matthias asked me.

"Well, before you came in, he talked about me hacking 'his' Pokédex firewall. I should've figured it out by now." I responded to him.

"Yeah, if this guy actually _is_ Bill Jr, then how didn't you recognise him, Alvin? Isn't he your idol or something?" Matthias asked me again.

"Why, idol, I'm honoured, Alvin." Bill Jr said with a bit of a smirk in his voice. I flushed a bit.

"Well, he hasn't been seen in public for five years, and looked way different in the last photos he had taken!" I argued back.

"Yes, yes, I did miss that blue-black hair of mine, as well as my fringe..." Bill Jr run commentary in the background. "Also, Alvin, you didn't really think you could get into the most protected bit of technology in the world with that much ease, did you?" I turned to him, confused.

"W-what do you mean?" I asked him.

"Well, theoretically the firewall of the Pokédex is unbreachable, protected by Porygon, Porygon2, Porygon-Z and Epidemhack-" He said.

"What the hell are Epidemhack?" I asked confusedly.

"-never mind that, as well as a Darwinian Learning Algorithm that's been exposed to constant attacks by these same Pokémon. Leaving one single weak point. One that only I know, and left in the code specifically as a backdoor in case anything needed fixing. Remind me, how did you get into my system again?" Bill Jr said.

"Well, I sort of just... followed a Porygon2..." I said slowly, before realising what actually happened.

"And who do you think got the Porygon2 to lead you there? Oh right. Me." Bill Jr responded, sitting back in his chair and giving it a spin around.

"I-I thought that I did it on my own!" I said desperately, my spirits crushed. The one thing of note I had done wasn't even my work?

"You thought you could get into the most secure database in the world?" Bill Jr stifled a chuckle. "Sorry, no offence, but I don't think you're quite intelligent enough to do that."

I stared blankly at the wall as Exton and Matthias stared concernedly at me. The emotions running through me were just too much to handle right now, so I shoved them deep inside my brain, taking a few deep breaths in and out. My fingers and toes, which I didn't even realise I clenched, relaxed back into their normal state.

"Alright!" I said with a bit of pain tinged in my voice "So! Good! Always wanted to be part of a prophecy!"

"You three should be fine, just continue doing what you were doing in the first place." Bill Jr waved dismissively. "Now, get out of my house."

I immediately turned around, and ran out the door, not wanting to let anyone see the obvious pain in my eyes, both of them slightly welling up. Matthias and Exton tentatively followed behind me.

 **In Bill Jr's Estate:**

The door creaked open behind Bill Jr.

"Who's there?" Bill Jr called out.

"Just a silly old man." Someone replied from behind him.

"Oh, don't put yourself down like that." Bill Jr's tone softened as he turned around. "Hello, dad."

An old man wearing a purple shirt and brown cargo pants walked into the room. "And how are you, son?"

Bill Jr turned back around. "You know. Busy as usual, dad."

Bill's voice now took on a cold edge. "Don't lie to me, boy. You sent that young man running out the door, basically in tears, along with his two friends. What have you done?"

Bill Jr didn't move a muscle. "Business as usual, dad. Research and experimentation."

Bill looked at him sternly. "You, my boy, can be extremely socially inept and rude. You bring those children back now, and you apologise to them."

Bill Jr stayed in his position. "I'll do you one better, dad. I'll give them an apology, and more."

Bill's cold edge now softened. "Good."


End file.
